Sabbath Lamp

Johann Valentin Schüler

1680–1720

Silver multi-tiered hanging lamp with sculpture of lion on top.
This Sabbath lamp, cast in silver in Frankfurt am Main, was originally commissioned for a private home. It was made by Johann Valentin Schüler, a craftsman who also produced many other Jewish ritual objects with his brother, in their shared studio. The cylindrical shape of this lamp is based on that of medieval fountains in public squares, probably in reference to the greeting of the Sabbath as a “fountain of blessing” in “Lekha dodi” (Come, my beloved), the hymn welcoming the Sabbath in the evening prayers. The figures on the cylinder hold symbols of the Jewish holidays and there are also animals and symbols of the zodiac. On top is a lion holding two flags, which are early twentieth-century replacements for what may have originally been in his paws.

Credits

Sabbath / Festival Lamp. Jewish Cultural Reconstruction / The Jewish Museum, New York.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

Johann Valentin Schüler

1650–1720

Johann Valentin Schüler was one of a family of silversmiths whose workshops in Frankfurt-am-Main produced ritual objects for Frankfurt’s Jewish community. The family included his brother, Johann Michael Schüler (b. 1658), and brother-in-law Johann Adam Boller. His father, Michael Schüler, was also a silversmith. Boller and the Schülers were the first to produce a new type of Hanukkah lamp, for home use, that became popular in the Jewish community in Frankfurt in the early eighteenth century.

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