Wedding Cup in case

This surprising piece of Judaica–a coconut mounted in silver to form a lidded cup–was used in a domestic context on the occasion of a wedding. The exterior depicts three scenes based on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century print sources: a marriage ceremony; a group of musicians; and a view of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. The Hebrew inscription above the Solomonic temple reads “Jerusalem, hills enfold it” (Psalm 125:2). The nut’s domed lid is inscribed “The sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride, the voice of those who cry” (Jeremiah 33:11). The elaborately detailed design reflects the prevailing taste of London’s society in the nineteenth century for the strange and curious from far-away countries–here embodied by the coconut–that was inspired by the revived interest in collecting objects originally created for the Kunstkammer of the Renaissance and Baroque. Art collections of families such as the Rothschild or the Sassoon dynasties dominated the market for curiosities such as this.