Small Torah Scroll – Eastern Europe – 19th Century – Adorned Tagim and Unusual Letters

Small format Torah Scroll. [Eastern Europe, beginning of 19th century?]. Nice-looking Ashkenazi script, characteristic to Russia or Eastern Europe, 18th-19th centuries. Written by two scribes. Rolled on carved Atzei Chaim. Clad in a velvet mantle and trussed with a velvet belt, with an embroidered illustration of a crown. On the crown are the (Hebrew) letters: Kaf and Taf. [The Atzei Chaim and the mantle are from a later time]. In the Torah scroll are unusual letters as was the custom of early scribes: enlarged letters according to a tradition that differs from the usual, the (Hebrew) letter Peh is winding, the vertical lines of the letter Chet are widened, etc. For a list of unusual letters, please see Hebrew description. Large tagim (crowns on the letters). At the beginning of Bereshit are crown-shaped adornments made into tagim (a rare phenomenon because according to halacha, it is forbidden to add ornamentation to a Torah scroll, but here the letters were adorned in a permissible fashion, the adornments are a continuation of the tagim). The height of the parchment: 15.5 cm. Maximum height, with the Atzei Chaim: 29.5 cm. Overall good condition.