Weekly Jewish holiday – Shabbat – concludes on Saturday evening with the Havdalah ceremony, which means "separation" in Hebrew. One of the ritual acts accompanying the ceremony is the smelling of fragrant roots, herbs, or crushed rose petals. They are placed in a decorative spice tower over which a blessing is recited (M. Goldstein, K. Dresdner, Kultura i sztuka ludu żydowskiego na ziemiach polskich, Lwów 1935, pp. 40-41).
The earliest mentions of using a special container for herbs during Havdalah date back to the 12th century. The custom became more widespread several centuries later, and the oldest artifacts date back to the early 16th century (Judaica ze zbiorów Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie, edited by E. Martyna, Warsaw 1993, p. 157). The scent of the herbs is symbolically meant to invigorate the body that has been left by the additional Shabbat soul (Hebrew: neshamah yeteirah). It is also believed to help the faithful cope with the hardships of the coming week.
The forms of spice towers have changed over different periods but with the preservation of traditional designs. They took the shape of towers, buildings, boxes, fish, and even locomotives.
The silver Besamim box from the collection of the Education and Museum Centre "Świętokrzyski Sztetl" has a convex, openwork foot with a horizontal circular cross-section. It is made up of six petals with rounded ends, touching each other with their side edges. Each petal is supported by a disk-shaped foot with a diameter of 1.1 cm and a height of 0.75 cm. The stem of the item features an eagle with spread wings and a head turned to the left, as well as an inverted motif of a base supporting an opening sphere on a hinge. The spherical container is closed with a clasp made up of soldered elements: a knob located on the rim of the cup and a movable latch on the lid. The lid is decorated with a Star of David made of convex braided cord. Inside the star, in the centre, there is a round turquoise stone in a casement setting, and six openings in the corners. In the central area of the cup, four maker's marks were stamped in rectangles: the goldsmith's monogram K.∏, the hallmark monogram with the date A∙A/1894, 84, and a double-headed eagle.