Obj. ID: 37435
Sacred and Ritual Objects Hanukkah lamp, Sefrou (Séfrou), circa 1900
The following description was prepared by William Gross:
The festival of Chanukah is celebrated in the winter period around December and commemorates a Biblical story in which the Jews of the Land of Israel rebel against the Greek occupiers. They reclaim the desecrated Holy Temple in Jerusalem and, miraculously, the small amount of pure oil remaining is enough to keep the Temple light going for eight days. Lamps with eight burners are lit during this holiday, both in the synagogue and at home. Through the centuries, such lamps have taken a wide variety of forms.
Almost all Chanukah lamps made in North Africa are either of artisan worked sheet brass or of sand cast brass. This lovely small Chanukah menorah is one in a whole family of cast brass lamps that seem to have been produced in Sefrou. Recent studies at the Israel museum lead to this conclusion. In the crevices created in the decoration of the chased casting are the remains of orange paint which had originally been applied. At the top, under the round hanging orifice, are the very unclear remains of a depiction of the "Akedat Yitzhak". A clear example of this extremely unusual pictorial decoration with human figures on a Chanukah lamp is in the collection of the Jewish Museum in New York. That identically-shaped lamp was displayed at a recent exhibition about Jewish Morocco at that museum. This model is of extreme rarity.
sub-set tree:
O | Ornamentation: | Ornament
O | Ornamentation: | Foliate and floral ornaments | Floral motif
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