Rectangular silver-plated Torah shield (Hebrew: tas), rectangular in shape, surmounted by a concave-convex arch, pressed and repoussed, made of copper alloy. The shield is surrounded by an ornament of laurel leaves (?). In its central section there is a neo-Rococo ornamental decoration, held from below by a pair of lions standing on their hind legs. Above them, framed by c-shaped and roccaile motifs, is a depiction of an altar cabinet in the form of a crowned semicircular niche with a pair of hinged doors. Inside the cabinet there is a miniature scroll with an engraved inscription in Hebrew: שַׁבָּת (Sabbath). The altar cabinet is flanked by a pair of columns with profiled bases and bulbous plinths. The latter refer to the antechamber of the Jerusalem Temple. The column shafts are decorated with an ornament in the form of floral tendrils, the capitals are shell-shaped. The entire exhibit is crowned with a floral, convex, openwork crown, a miniature of which is featured among the floral ornaments. The rim of the main crown bears the inscription in Hebrew: "Keter Torah" (Torah Crown). Ihe upper corners there is a pair of eyelets intended for a chain that is missing.
The object was one of the ornaments for a Tohar scroll clad with a Torah dress. It was usually used in temples as a kind of information plaque – it told of a ceremony for which a Torah scroll was to be prepared (the day before). The custom originated from a Talmudic provision forbidding the winding of the Torah scroll in the temple to avoid unnecessary waste of time.
The exhibit comes from the collection of the Kalisz artist Tadeusz Kulisiewicz. It underwent conservation in 2020. The reading of the Hebrew inscriptions was done by Teresa Śmiechowska of the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe.
