80 Seder plate
cca. 1880
pewter
present of Sándor Scheiber, 1946
This pewter Seder plate with an engraving is an interesting reminder of the relation between Jewish and Christian iconography. The center of the plate contains a Seder scene from the first Haggadah from Amsterdam, illustrated with copper engravings, printed in 1695. The pictures in this Haggadah from Amsterdam were taken over by various later editions of the Haggadah as well, and were in constant use, reprinted over and over again, sometimes with slight modifications, and thus became widely known. The Haggadah from Amsterdam was printed by Salamon ben Joseph, its illustrator was Abraham ben Jacob, who was born a Christian, and converted to Judaism as an adult, and must have known the series of copper engravings on themes from stories of the Old and the New Testaments entitled Icones Biblicae, made by Matthaeus Merian between 1625 and 1630. For the illustrations of the Haggadah, Abraham ben Jacob adapted Merian’s pictures by omitting Christian symbols, or slightly modifying the pictures for the new content. For the scene depicting the Seder night meal, he used Merian’s picture of the Last Supper.