- Object Name:
- Passover Handwashing Vessel
- Place Made:
- Istanbul (Turkey)
- Date:
- 1849/50 (date of inscription)
- Medium:
- Copper: gilt, repoussé, punched, and engraved
- Dimensions:
- 13 × 9 × 7 in. (33 × 22.9 × 17.8 cm)
- Credit Line:
- The H. Ephraim and Mordecai Benguiat Family Collection
- Accession Number:
- S 77a
Not On View
This fine pitcher and basin (S 77b), with their delicate serpentine pattern of trees and hills, display the exquisite craftsmanship of Ottoman metalsmiths. The Benguiats used them for ritual handwashing during the Passover seder. Special vessels like these were also commonly used in the Ottoman Empire for Muslim ritual ablutions and in the home, and indeed the inscription lists the original owner and date of manufacture as “Ahmad Pasha Karim ibn Sharif Zuleyha[?] [1]266,” that is, 1849–50.
Information may change as a result of ongoing research.