Painted pottery figure of a stereotypical Jewish merchant holding gold coins
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 9.250 inches (23.495 cm) | Width: 5.375 inches (13.653 cm) | Depth: 3.500 inches (8.89 cm)
Creator(s)
- Peter Ehrenthal (Compiler)
Biographical History
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.
Archival History
The ceramic figurine was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of 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.
Scope and Content
Detailed, satirical, terracotta pottery figure of a stereotypical heavyset, Jewish banker. He is depicted with a large curved nose, looking with a self-satisfied expression at the gold coins in his hand. It is a companion piece to 2016.184.534.2, a figure of the bankers’s richly dressed, unattractive wife. The figures convey the impression that although their wealth and expensive clothes place them in the bourgeois class, they are still uncultured peasants. This ceramic figurine is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic visual materials.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Painted terracotta figurine of an overweight Jewish man with a large, red nose, bushy eyebrows, bald head and large ears. The man is standing with his arms bent at the elbows, holding a black top hat in his left hand and gold coins in the right. He wears a long black coat with red lapels, a yellow vest with red and blue buttons and a white collared shirt. He stands on a black square-shaped base with numbers written and stamped on the bottom in black ink.
bottom, stamped, black ink : 40 bottom, handwritten, black ink 10,8, 49. L
Subjects
- Antisemitism--Germany--18th century--Art.
- Antisemitism in art.
- Jewish folk art--Germany.
- Jews in art.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons--18th century.
- Germany.
- Jews--Germany--18th century--Sculpture.
Genre
- Figurines.
- Decorative Arts
- Object