[Esther Scroll housed in silver decorative case, untitled].

A beautiful example of a Bezalel Megillah housed in a silver case with elaborate filigree and semiprecious stones.

The Bezalel school was founded in 1906 in Jerusalem by the artist and professor Boris Schatz and was the first art school to be established in the Holy Land in the 20th century. Schatz (who discussed his vision of opening an art school in the Land of Israel with Herzl when the two met in Vienna
in 1903), chose to call the school Bezalel after the biblical artist Bezalel ben Uri ben Hur, mentioned in the book of Exodus as the artist chosen by God to build the Tabernacle (HaMishkan in Hebrew). According to the scripture this artist worked in silver, gold, copper, stone and wood. By founding the school Schatz aimed to establish a national style of art, blending classical Jewish, European and Middle-Eastern traditions.

In addition to traditional sculpture and painting training, the school ran craft workshops that produced
decorative objects in silver, leather, wood, brass and fabric, which were sold at exhibitions in Europe and the United States. Schatz's school was closed in 1929 and then reopened in the mid 1930s as the New Bezalel. In 1955 the school received its official academic acclaim and today the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design is Israel's national school of art, as well as its oldest higher education institution. The art created by Bezalel's students and professors in the first decades of the 20th century is considered the stepping stone for Israeli visual arts.

The Book of Esther is part of Ketuvim (Writings), the third section of the Hebrew Bible. It tells the story of a Jewish girl named Esther who became queen of Persia and thwarted a plan by Haman to commit genocide against her people. Also called The Megillah, the book is the basis and an integral part of the Jewish celebration of Purim. Its full text is read aloud twice during the celebration, in the evening and again the following morning. Besides Song of Songs, it is the only book in the Bible that does not explicitly mention God.

'Since the Talmudic period it has been customary to write the Book of Esther on parchment in the form of a scroll, and the rules governing its production and
writing are basically the same as those for a traditional Torah scroll. It is not known when and under what circumstances artistic embellishment of Esther scrolls
began. The earliest extant illuminated examples emanate from 16th-century Italy, commissioned by well-to-do Italian Jews.' (Encyclopaedia Judaica)

Original manuscript on vellum, text arranged in 14 lines, in Hebrew script, scroll housed in an elaborately decorated silver filigree case (stamped 'Made in Palestine 935'), set with five semiprecious stones (presumed Carnelian stone); scroll height 600 mm, case height 220 mm, engraved with 'Jerusalem' signature, in Hebrew.