Obj. ID: 39153  Hanukkah lamp, Frankfurt am Main, circa 1720

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.

This type of lamp preceded the most popular and well-known Frankfurt type of the last half of the 18th century - the bench type. It was fashion by Balthasar Leschorm, a know Frankfurt silversmith of the very late 17th and early 18th century. Many of these later lamps were made by succeeding generations of the same Leschorn family. There are far fewer examples of this earlier type. One other example of this type by the same maker exists in another private collection. The general form is that of a chest for the storage of linens or other personal belongings as often used in a German household of the early 18th century. The legs in the form of rampant lions are a nice added element for the composition.