2-979-611 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Marriage Ceremonial of the Baron Alphonse de Rothschild and Miss Leonora Rothschild [at Gunnersbury Park]: the Bridegroom Breaking the Wine-cup, 1857. 'The marriage contract having been read, the Chief Rabbi presented a wine-cup, and invoked on the wedding pair seven blessings. The Chief Rabbi then congratulated the pair, and offered up a supplication for the poor of the Land of Promise. The wine-cup, which the Hebrews regard as the symbol of blended joy and sorrow, was then taken by the bridegroom, who, after tasting the contents, threw the cup on the ground, when it was shattered into pieces, thus denoting the precarious nature of life and joy, and commemorating also that sorrow which is still held sacred by the Jew - the destruction of the Temple...Attendant upon the bride are the sixteen bridemaids in their chastely- elegant costume'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.