Esther Scroll holder and scroll – £25,000 at Lyon & Turnbull.
Topping by some way an offering of 300 pieces of jewellery at Lyon & Turnbull’s (25% buyer’s premium) Edinburgh sale was a Persian gold and niello decorated Esther Scroll holder.
The 6½in (16.5cm) long holder with coral finial enclosed a megillah (scroll) engraved with river landscapes. This told in Hebrew the story of Esther, wife of Emperor Xerxes, who stopped a plot to exterminate her fellow Jews in Persia. Traditionally, the scroll is read out on the Jewish feast of Purim.