A Rare Purim Grogger by Chava Wolpert Richard, Daughter of Ludwig Wolpert. New York, mid-late 20th C.

A Rare Purim Grogger by Chava Wolpert Richard, Daughter of Ludwig Wolpert. New York, mid-late 20th C.

An unusual item from the oeuvre of Chava Wolpert Richard, one of the leading female Israeli Judaica artists of the 20th C.

Richard decorated her flag-shaped grogger on both sides with a very rare and interesting folk image showing Mordechai on horseback trampling a demon. A clear play on the traditional and "expected" image of Mordechai in Triumph (being led on horseback by an abject Haman), this scene visualizes the smiting of Haman/Amalek that is symbolically accomplished when making noise with the grogger. Ahasuerus and Esther, also depicted in a naïve, folk style, stand watching from the side.

Richard brought several innovative practices to the creation of Jewish ceremonial objects, including the use of inexpensive materials that would make her work affordable to less prosperous clientele. She was also in the forefront in the use of synthetic material, as exemplified by the present grogger, which makes use of aluminum sheeting and Lucite.

Chava Wolpert Richard (1933-2015), daughter of the famous Judaica artist Ludwig Wolpert, established herself as an innovative and highly regarded Judaica artist in her own right. Born and raised in Israel, Wolpert Richard studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem (where her father headed the silver workshop), and was strongly influenced by the modernist Bauhaus style. She eventually joined her father at the Tobe Pascher Workshop at the Jewish Museum New York, where she continued and developed her work until its closing in 1989.

24.3 x 12.5 cm. Signed in the plate Chava WR [Wolpert Richard]

A wonderful and unusual piece of 20th-century Folk Art by a prominent female Judaica artist.