A Rare French Provincial Silver Seal with Woman's Name in Hebrew, Louis Deletombe, Lille, 1758-59

Nicole Cartier, Les Orfèvres de Lille, vol. I, Paris: Peters, 2007, no. 226, p. 617.

The Hebrew inscription reads, "Fradele the wife of Nata". The name is a diminutive of "Fradel". In a database of the Jews of Alsace in 1748, the name "Fradel" appears no less than 57 times (plus one listing for Freidele).

Given its position between France and Flanders (Belgium), Lille was an important trading center and passed between powers before becoming definitely French in the early 18th century. Jews must have passed through as traders and merchants, and probably found work in the city as weavers, likely largely from Alsace on the Franco-German border just south of Belgium. However, the town had no permanent Jewish community during most of the 18th century. It was only on the eve of the French Revolution (1780s) that a community developed, fostered by Alsatian Jews in particular. In 1809, there were 166 Jews recorded in the "Department du Nord," which included Lille, and 63 in the neighboring department of Pas-de-Calais (https://jguideeurope.org/en/region/france/north/lille/).

Silversmith Louis Delatombe was born in Lille in 1700 and became a master in 1724. Established in the rue des Jardins by 1739, he served in several prestigious positions with the Lille Goldsmiths' Guild from 1755 to 1773, before his death in 1774. Whether a particular specialty of his, or the limitations of a provincial clientele, nine of the eleven pieces by Deltombe recorded by Nicole Cartier are snuffboxes or small containers like this one.