Charter (20 1/4 x 26 1/2 in.; 515 x 671 mm) on parchment; written in German square (first two lines) and cursive (remainder) scripts in dark brown ink on forty long lines; outer margins ruled in pencil; underlines in pencil on lines 11-12 and marks in pencil on lines 11, 16. First two lines enlarged; enlarged, elaborately decorated initial; pen flourishing on several letters on first line; a number of words enlarged for emphasis; parchment folded over Leopold von Dietrichstein’s signature; flowery secretarial certification and signature on parchment foldover; red wax seal of Leopold von Dietrichstein (diameter: 2 1/2 in.; 63 mm) in carved wooden bowl with lid, attached with string of red, gold, white, and black thread. Slight staining to upper edge; larger dampstain in lower third obscuring some text; creased at folds; four small holes along fold lines, only slightly affecting text; remnants of red rust transferred from iron tin. Accompanied by iron tin case (9 5/8 x 8 1/8 in.; 245 x 205 mm) painted with floral designs and wreaths in red, yellow, green, white, and black and inscribed “Ano 1700”; case rusted, paint flaking, joint and clasp abraded. Housed in a gray archival cardboard box.

David Oppenheimer (1664-1736), a native of Worms and heir to a princely fortune, was called to the rabbinate of Nikolsburg and the chief rabbinate of Moravia at the young age of 25, having been ordained only five years previously. There he developed a reputation as a sage leader, generous philanthropist, and great scholar and bibliophile, which only grew when he became chief rabbi of Prague in 1702. In the present lot, Leopold Ignaz Joseph von Dietrichstein (1660-1708), lord of Nikolsburg, grants Oppenheimer (here spelled: Oppenheimber) the right to use charity he had collected from various communities to purchase a slaughterhouse from Salomon Koppel Deutsch, a local Jewish merchant who enjoyed the protection of the House of Dietrichstein. The proceeds of this slaughterhouse would pay into a fund that would support a local beit midrash (here spelled: Bezhamederisch) for poor students. To ensure the slaughterhouse’s income, the prince further granted it a monopoly on kosher meat production, as well as exemption from taxes both from the Jewish community and from the municipal government. Dr. Richard Teltscher (1888-1974) was born in Nikolsburg (present-day Mikulov, Czech Republic) and trained as a lawyer in Vienna before joining the family wine business. Fascinated by the history and culture of Moravian Jewry, he built up an important private collection of Judaica. Some of these items were sent to London, where he spent the war years and lived out the rest of his life.

Sotheby’s is grateful to Dr. Verena Kasper-Marienberg for providing information that aided in the cataloging of this manuscript.

Literature

Max Freudenthal, “David Oppenheim als mährischer Landrabbiner,” Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums 46,5-6 (May 1902): 262-274.

Max Grunwald, Samuel Oppenheimer und sein Kreis (Vienna and Leipzig: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1913), 263-265.

S.H. Lieben, “David Oppenheim,” Jahrbuch der Jüdisch-Literarischen Gesellschaft 19 (1928): 1-38, at p. 11.

Leopold Löwenstein, “David Oppenheim,” in Marcus Brann and Ferdinand Rosenthal (eds.), Gedenkbuch zur Erinnerung an David Kaufmann (Breslau: Schles. Verlags-Anstalt, 1900), 538-559, at pp. 541-542, 554-556.