Parchment Ketubah – Illustrated by R' David Elkaim – Mogador, 1921

Parchment ketubah, recording the marriage of the groom Aharon son of Dinar Ochana with the bride Rachel, daughter of Ya'akov Apriyat. Mogador, Morocco, the month of "Sivan crowned with the crown of the Torah", 1921.
Illustrated and decorated by the artist and poet Rabbi David (Nissim) Elkaim. Signed in the bottom left corner: "David Elkaïm Mogador".
The content of the ketubah is written inside an elaborate architectural frame, with two massive pillars and adornments in gold and silver colors, surrounded by drawings of wooden posts with green tendrils and fabric ribbons, and various verses.
At the beginning of the ketubah is a golden crown above a pair of clasped hands – belonging to the groom and bride (with a wedding ring on her finger). In the center of the pillars is a medallion with a drawing of a flag with blue stripes beside a Star of David.
At the bottom of the frame is a monogram integrating the initials of the bride and the groom: R (Rachel) and A (Aharon).
In the ketubah itself, the groom undertakes not "to marry another woman unless it complies with the new regulation, and not to take her out of this country to another place unless she agrees…".
The ketubah is written in square script followed by the details of the dowry in semi-cursive script. Signatures of the groom and the witnesses: “Ye’uda Ibn Abu”, “Mordechai Ochayon”. With authorization of the ketubah signed by the Mogador Beit Din rabbis: “Masud Knafo”, “David Knafo Ibn R’ Yachin [Yosef Knafo]”, “Moshe Ibn Simchon”.
Rabbi David Elkaim (1851-1941) – Chacham, poet, sculptor, artist, journalist and Jewish scholar was one of the three authors of the Shir Yedidut anthology, which constitutes the basis of the bakashot sung by Moroccan Jews [for more information, see: Yosef Shitrit, “R’ David Elkaim, Meshorer Ivri BeMarocco” (Hebrew: R’ David Elkaim, Hebrew Poet in Morocco), Apyrion no. 1, Spring 1983, pp. 96-102; Shalom Sabar, “Ketubah Mehuderet…” (Hebrew: Elaborate Ketubah of the Mogador Community, Morocco, 1898, by the Artist R’ David Elkaim, the leading ketubah artist in Mogador), Brit 25, 2006, pp. 18-21]. See also next item.
Enclosed is an article about this ketubah by Prof. Shalom Sabar.
Approximately 61X50 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains. Creases. Tears, primarily to margins. Several holes.