Besamim box (Hebrew: besamim – "fragrant herbs, roots, spices"), which is a decorative container for fragrant herbs or roots, is found in every home and synagogue. It is used during the Havdalah (Hebrew: "separation") ceremony performed at the end of the Sabbath. The appropriate blessing over the besamim box is recited by the head of the family, after which each member of the household approaches it one by one and smells the aromas emanating from it. 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. One of the most popular shapes of besamim boxes is a castle turret or tower.
The besamim box from the collection of the District Museum in Tarnów was made of brass, silver-plated, cut and stamped sheet metal, using the filigree technique. Its main part is a hexagonal spice box, with a small door, on a single hinge, and with a lock. It is placed on a turned, round, profiled, arched foot, passes into a smooth oval baluster-shaped stem, with a flattened knop between two rings. It ends with a half-round border on which the base of the spice box is placed. The box is crowned with an oblong, oval, conical spire with a ball on top and a movable, swallowtail flag on a pole. There are two punched marks on the flag: 1. of the manufacturer: the inscription: "NORBLIN & C[..]/ GALW/ WARSZ•" in a horizontal oval; 2. product catalogue number "213".
The walls of the box are made of a single strip of sheet metal with an openwork floral ornament, arranged in two strips, with a smooth strip in the middle, halfway up which are single protrusions. The composition is bounded from the top and bottom by smooth sheet metal strips. An almost identical besamim box with the same dimensions and foot diameter, made of brass sheet, is in the collection of the National Museum in Kraków (inventory no.: MNK IV-M/574).
There is significant abrasion of the silver plating, general patination, tarnish and residue inside the herb container, and the surface of the openwork is bent. The besamim box is slightly tilted off the axis and leans forward. It was made in the Warsaw Norblin plating factory (Norblin & CO), operating between 1819 and 1944.
It was purchased for the District Museum in Tarnów in 1986 from a Warsaw collector. It probably comes from Warsaw or its surroundings.
Barbara Bułdys