Object Jewish Museum 291 is a Megillah.

This Megillah is prominently displayed in our Judaica gallery, and helps schoolchildren and other visitors learn about the festival of Purim, which this year fell last Monday night. It was acquired by the museum in 1967, although it had been on long-term loan to us since 1932. Notes from that time suggest that it had been a gift to Viscount Samuel during a visit to Florence.

A Megillah is a scroll, usually written on parchment, on which the biblical book of Esther is written and read from on Purim. This Megillah was made in the 18th century but we don’t unfortunately know who the artist was. If you look at it closely, you can see beautiful coloured illustrations in the Rococo style of art which suggests it was made in northern Italy.

From the 17th century onwards, most Jewish communities made cases for their Megillot, but this one is not encased. Instead, it is attached to an elaborately carved ivory roller which is part of a group of six similarly decorated Megillot, held in various collections around the world.

If we were to unravel this Megillah, it would be 65cm in length and contain 17 columns of Hebrew text framed with garlanded arches, twisted columns and illustrated scenes of the Purim story such as King Ahasuerus walking outside his palace. In the section we see here, there’s a figure holding scales to symbolise the justice that is served in the Purim story.

A Megillah can be illustrated because, unlike the Torah, God’s name is not mentioned.

Eliana Mendelsohn is the learning officer at Jewish Museum London