Detail of Hallmarks
This Jacob may have been the same as the ‘J.
LEVI,
ENGRAVER, at No.
29, Portsmouth Point, who in 1774
advertised: ‘Engraves all Kinds of Seals, Plate, and Copper-
plates in the neatest Manner; Motto and Mourning Rings, and
every Particular in the Jewellery Business.
Hair laid in any
Device, or platted in Lockets, Rings, &c.
Also, sells all Sorts of
Plate, Watches, Jewellery, Necklaces, Ear-rings, Toys, Hard-
Ware, &c.
- Gives the best Prices for Gold, Silver, Lace, Jewels,
Cornelians, Corrals, &c.,
&c., *
* Country Orders executed
with Care and Dispatch.
As there are People whose Names
are similar to mine on the Point, the Public will be pleased to
observe J.
Levi, Engraver, over my Door.’8
Jacob Levi, engraver of Portsmouth, otherwise known as
Jacob ben Wolf Levi, was admitted to the membership of the
Great Synagogue in London in 1775.
In 1788, described as a
silversmith of Portsea, Hampshire, he became master to an
apprentice called Harry Cobden.10
9
In 1935, the Jewish historian Cecil Roth wrote that, ‘The (Fig.
descendants of Jacob Levi and his wife Elizabeth [d
1820] are
of some importance in Anglo-Jewish history.
Their second son,
Isaac [1787-1839], married Esther Hannah Montefiore, some
of their sons.
adopting their mother’s name.
Jacob Levi’s
third son, Solomon Jacob Levi [1791-1864], married Rachel
Hort [1791-1854], whose mother had been a daughter of Rabbi
Simeon Waley from Prague, whose name he adopted.’11
1), The Pratt &
Humphreys Torah finials,
London, 1784, as they were
shown at the 1887 Anglo-
Jewish Exhibition, Albert
Hall, London.
Among the many other interesting descendants and
relatives of Jacob Levi who is not mentioned by Cecil Roth
is his grandson, Simon Waley (1827-1875), one of
the children of Mr.
and Mrs.
Solomon Jacob Levi (Waley),
a member of the London Stock Exchange and a gifted
amateur musician.
In 1859 he married Anna Hendelah
(1840?-1881),
daughter of Philip Joseph Salomons, the
REUB EN DAVID SASSOON
wner of a celebrated collection of Judaica which included
he present pair of Evans & Levi Torah finials.
The n ext owner of the Evans & Levi finials was Reuben David
Sasso on, the fourth son of David Sassoon, pater familias.
PHILIP JOSEPH SALOMONS
After Philip’s death in 1867, most of his collections were sold
at auc tion, but the bulk of the Judaica was acquired by a
neigh bour at Hove, Reuben David Sassoon (1834-1905), then
recen tly arrived in England from Bombay.
The importance of
the Sa lomons collection was such that 20 years after his death
it was given a special place in the 1887 Anglo-Jewish Historical
Exhibi tion.12
Detail
By the mid 19th century, the Evans & Levi Torah finials had
passed into the collection of Philip Salomons.
He was the son
of Levy Salomons and Mathilda Metz; his father was a financier
in the City of London and collector of Hebrew and Rabbinical
books.
Both Philip and his younger brother, David also entered
the financial world, but David is best known now for his political
career, the pinnacle of which was his election in 1855 as the
first Jewish Lord Mayor London.
Philip married in 1850 Emma
Montefiore, a distant relative of Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st
Bt.
(1784-1885).
Raise d in Bombay, he attended to the family business in Hong
Kong and Shanghai, before returning to Bombay and then, in
1867, joining his older brother in London.
He became a valued
memb er of the Prince of Wales’s set, and particularly of the
Prince ’s turf accountant.
Notes
1.
Grimwade, London Goldsmiths, 1697-1837, pp.
A.G. 554 and 631
2
In his will, signed on 9 April 1785 and proved with two
codicils on 7 May 1785, Humphreys bequeathed to his partner,
Thomas Boulton Pratt, 20 guineas for a mourning ring.
National Archives, Kew, PROB 11/1129.
3.
Grimwade, p.
196, no.
2747; The London Gazette, London, 5
4.
October 1784
Grimwade, p.
505
5.
395. This mark has been recorded on pairs of
silver sugar tongs
Sold Christie’s, Amsterdam, 31 May 1999, for just over
$300,000 and now in the Israel Museum, no.
B13.0557
7.
Treasures of Jewish Art, The Jakob and Erna, and Charles
Michael Legacy in the Israel Museum, p.
30
8.
The Hampshire Chronicle, Southampton, Monday, 25 July
1774, p.
1c
9.
Cecil Roth, ‘The Membership of the Great Synagogue,
London, to 1791,’ Miscellanies of the Jewish Historical Society
of England, 1962, vol.
6, pp.
10.
179 and 183
National Archives, Kew, IR 1/33, fol.
202, Thursday, 8 May 1788
11.
Cecil Roth, ‘The Portsmouth Community and its Historical
Background,’ Paper read before the Jewish Historical Society
of England, 11 March 1935, Transactions of the Jewish Historical
Society of England, 1932-1935, vol.
13, pp.
161 and 162
12.
For further information, see the article written to
accompany the recent sale of the Sassoon Collection at
Sotheby’s, New York: https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/
philip-salomons, accessed 3 November 2021
13.
Introduction to the Catalogue of the Jewish Museum,
London.
For further information about Reuben David Sassoon
and other pieces from his collection, see the article written
to accompany the recent sale of the Sassoon Collection at
Sotheby’s, New York: https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/
reuben-david-sassoon, accessed 3 November 2021
remin d Victorian England of the cultural achievements of the
pieces he acquired were largely English or from the related Jewis h people, against a background of negative propaganda Jew
sh centres in Holland and Northern Germany.
Isaac Strauss
focused on Torah ornaments, and period accounts indicate that of Par is and David Sassoon of London were the two primary
they were actually used in the private synagogue in his house in privat e lenders, and in the words of Cecil Roth, were ‘largely
Hove, near Brighton, not presented as display objects in cases.
He mostly aroun d recent arrivals from Eastern Europe.
94
Sasso on was also an observant Jew who kept a private
synag ogue in his various houses in London.
To the collection
acqui red from the estate of Philip Salomons he added pieces
repre senting Jewish artistic accomplishments in Germany,
Easte rn Europe and Italy.
6. In 1887 the Anglo-Jewish Historical
Exhibi tion was being organized at the Royal Albert Hall, to
Philip was probably the first major English collector of Judaica
respo nsible for its outstanding success.’13
95