Hanukkah Lamp in an Early Architectonic Design – Italy, 18th or 19th Century

Hanukkah lamp, architectonic model. [Italy, 18th or 19th century].

Cast brass.

Hanukkah lamp with openwork back plate

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Hanukkah Lamp in an Early Architectonic Design – Italy, 18th or 19th Century

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Auction 105 Books | Letters and Manuscripts | Esther Scrolls and Jewish Ceremonial Art

Jan 27, 2026

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Hanukkah Lamp in an Early Architectonic Design – Italy, 18th or 19th Century

Opening: $800

Sold for: $2,750

Including buyer's premium

Hanukkah lamp, architectonic model. [Italy, 18th or 19th century].

Cast brass.

Hanukkah lamp with openwork back plate and side panels, representing an early, uncommon design. The back plate is in the form of a low fence with ten stylized columns, and with a thin horizontal strip near the top, connecting all the columns. The columns at the left and right extremities are wider than the rest; each has a pair of apertures through which the side panels – matching the back plate – are attached. The row of round oil fonts, with long, pinched, pointed spouts for the wicks, is attached to the bottom of the back plate by means of a pair of pins. Removable, matching servant light attached at left to top of back plate with small hook.

This item belongs to a group of Italian Hanukkah lamps dating from the 16th or 17th century in which the back plate is designed in architectonic style and usually modeled after Italian city walls, palaces, and other monumental buildings and structures built in the Baroque style of the Renaissance period. This particular type of back plate, typically spreading widthwise, replaced the triangular back plates characteristic of the Hanukkah lamps inspired by the Gothic art of the Middle Ages that preceded this period (especially in Spain and Italy, but in other countries as well).

A similar Hanukkah lamp is documented by Mordechai Narkiss in his seminal work "The Hanukkah Lamp" (Item No. 44; see below), but Narkiss’s lamp includes an additional panel and ornament above the gate, and lacks side panels. Another similar Hanukkah lamp appears in the Magnes Collection, Berkeley (Item No. 67.1.4.13, formerly of the Strauss Collection), but this one also lacks side panels.

Height: 7.5 cm. Width: 25.5 cm. Depth: 6 cm. Overall good condition. Minor blemishes. One oil font with spout bent sideways. Fractures and old soldering repairs to row of oil fonts. Pins connecting row of oil fonts to back plate missing. Side panels attached by means of more recent soldering.

For comparison, see: Mordechai Narkiss, The Hanukkah Lamp, Bnei Bezalel, Jerusalem, 1939 (Hebrew with English summary), Item No. 44; and Ruth Eis, Hanukkah Lamps of the Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley, California, 1977, Item No. MC 7.

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