From the estate inventory prepared for Sara M. Halpern, niece and sole heir, of the residential property and personal effects of Saul A. Halpern, deceased 14 February 1968, at 1418 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, New York. The inventory was conducted on the 4th and 5th of March 1968 by Mr. Levin Karpman, licensed appraiser, of Karpman & Sons, 421 Eastern Parkway. The portion reproduced below covers the basement workroom only.
ESTATE OF SAUL A. HALPERN (1894–1968) 1418 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, NY
Basement workroom — northwest corner, the steel cabinet behind the workbench, opened on the 4th of March in the presence of the heir Miss S. M. Halpern.
Contents of the cabinet (six shelves; appraised individually below):
Shelf 1 (top).
- One small silver pendant, bird-form, with niello inlay across both wings and the tail in a chevron pattern. Length approx. 1¼ inches. A Greek inscription is incised upon the reverse, in three groups, reading (per Karpman's reading) Ω ΧΡΕ Ε. A distinct old bend at the leading edge of the lower left wing. Suspended from a fine silver chain of evident later date (probably 17th-cent. Continental). Appraisal: $3,400 (Byzantine, 9th–10th century, with a degree of provenance documentation in the cabinet itself; see Shelf 6 below).
- One reliquary cross of silver-gilt, North Italian, 16th cent., enamel medallion at the centre. Appraisal: $850.
- One pyx, silver, parcel-gilt, Spanish, late 17th cent. Appraisal: $310.
Shelf 2. [Twelve devotional objects; appraised at a combined $4,420; itemized on the following page.]
Shelf 3. [Coin collection — mainly Roman and Byzantine; appraised at $1,890.]
Shelf 4. [Six small icons, Russian and Greek, 18th-cent. and later; appraised at $760.]
Shelf 5. [Three reliquaries, of lesser interest; appraised at $200 combined.]
Shelf 6 (bottom).
- A green clothbound ledger, marbled boards, kept by the deceased for the cabinet's contents. The ledger records, against the silver bird-pendant of Shelf 1, the following entries (Mr. Halpern's hand):
- 1879 (November): "Acquired at London, the Barlin sale, by an arrangement of the family's. Subsequently to Athens then to Florence then to New York." - 1937 (August): "The Athens matter. To be left alone for the present." - 1953: "The matter remains as it stood in '37. I will not address it in my lifetime; my heirs may do as their consciences direct."
Note appended by the appraiser, at the foot:
Miss Halpern has retained the pendant and the ledger personally, against the appraised value to be deducted from her share of the estate. The other items of Shelf 1 are to be consigned with the rest of the cabinet's contents to Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, per Miss Halpern's instruction.
— L. Karpman, 5 March 1968.