During services, the tik was placed upright on the reader’s desk and the Torah is chanted without removing the scroll from the case.
Fashioned from wood cased in sheets of embossed silver and embellished with glass beads (similar vessels were also made in brass), the construction made it easy to transport and provided protection for the contents.
It was almost certainly made in Baghdad in the late-19th or early-20th century and was once a relatively common object in Iraqi synagogues or those of the Baghdadi Jewish tradition.
The tik includes a Hebrew dedicatory inscription. Many of these were lost during the Second World War so, although missing two of the finials that hung from the onion dome and lacking the manuscript, it is a scarce object today.
Estimated to bring £1500-2500 at Kings Russell (25% buyer’s premium) in London on April 28, it sold at £6500 to a buyer on thesaleroom.com.
