Late 19th Century Moroccan Brass Hanukkah Lamp Menorah

Brass Hanukkah lamp Menorah, Poland, circa 1810. Cast in Bench form, on four feet. The backplate is cast and pierced featuring scrollwork. This lamp was made by the technique known as "sand casting". This process begins with a wooden mold that was carved out to create negative space, which in turn is used to make the inverse form or shape to be used for the casting of metal. The mold is pressed into fine sand mixed with clay, then removed, and molten brass poured into the impression. When a mold wears out, a casting from that mold is often used as the mold for the next generation. Those later lamps...

Hand hammed and hand engraved brass Hanukkah lamp, Morrocco, 19th century stands with oil fonts with pinched spouts attached to the back plate. Han...

Hanging brass Hanukkah Lamp Menorah, Morocco, circa 1900. Decorated with openwork, engravings, and with figures of birds on both sides. Made of heavy cast brass, the backplate is pi...

Handcut strips of silver that have been bent into curvilinear shapes, with semicircle of candle-sockets, complete with drip-pans. A cast-made pair of birds, appearing to be ducks or geese, flank the servant light, while at top as the finial, a large casting of a hen or rooster. While this overall form of lamp is known as hailing from Iraq, we cannot locate any other Iraqi lamps featuring the animals displayed on our example. Birds such as peacocks were widely used in Iraqi and other Middle-Eastern and North African Chanukah lamps, however the usage of the animals featured on our lamp likely have more to do with the surrounding Islamic culture than revealing any meaning in Judaism, which is typical overall for many motifs found on Jewish ritual...