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Bronze cane knob in the shape of a squinting Jewish man’s head

Object | Accession Number: 2016.184.66

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    Bronze cane knob in the shape of a squinting Jewish man’s head

    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    Bronze cane knob cast in the shape of a Jewish man's head, wearing a patched kippah. European artisans commonly adorned everyday items such as ceramics, toys, and even walking sticks, with caricatures of Jewish faces. These walking sticks are examples of racial antisemitism becoming part of everyday life. This cane knob is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
    Date
    creation:  approximately 1801-approximately 1899
    Geography
    creation: Germany
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
    Markings
    front, base, engraved : FD(A?)
    Contributor
    Compiler: Peter Ehrenthal
    Biography
    The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.

    Physical Details

    Object Type
    Knobs (handles) (aat)
    Physical Description
    Finely detailed, hollow, bronze knob handle for a walking stick cast in the shape of a man’s head wearing a patched kippah with a rolled brim. He has stereotypically Jewish features: hooded eyes squinting from under thick eyebrows, a big nose with a pointed tip, long bushy sidelocks, mustache, and short pointed beard. He has a fleshy lower lip and his mouth is open in a sneering smile, showing the top row of teeth. He has an elongated neck with a short cylindrical band at the bottom, which would be placed over the top of a cane shaft.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 3.000 inches (7.62 cm) | Width: 1.875 inches (4.763 cm) | Depth: 2.625 inches (6.668 cm)
    Materials
    overall : bronze

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The cane knob was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Special Collection
    Katz Ehrenthal Collection
    Record last modified:
    2022-07-28 18:12:35
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn537168

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