Hanukkah Lamp

Rötger Herfurth

ca. 1769–1776

Silver oil lamp with lions on each side and crown on top.
The master silversmith Rötger Herfurth was particularly well known for his Hanukkah lamps, most of which have backplates and rampant lions, a style he popularized and which came to be known as the “Frankfurt type.” The box with a banner on the right is for the shamash, the candle or wick used to light the eight lights in the tray. Herfurth created a new style of Judaica, which had no previous parallels, and his work had a significant impact on later Christian silversmiths who made such objects. These lions, commonly featured on Judaica ceremonial objects and constituting a heraldic function, hold a crowned cartouche that encloses an eight-branched menorah. Silver: repoussé, traced, pierced, punched, and cast 5 3/8 × 5 1/2 × 2 11/16 in. (13.6 × 14 × 6.9 cm).

Credits

The Jewish Museum, New York. Gift of Adele Ginzberg, F 5237.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.

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Creator Bio

Rötger Herfurth

Rötger Herfurth was a Christian silversmith who worked in Frankfurt. Herfurth became a master silversmith in 1748, joining the Leschhorn family workshop, which was active for about a century. He produced numerous ceremonial objects for Jewish clients, following a fire in Frankfurt’s Jewish ghetto in the early eighteenth century that claimed much of the community’s existing Judaica. As a result of restrictions imposed on Jews prior to Emancipation that restricted their access to entering the silver-working trade, ceremonial objects were commissioned from Christian artisans. Herfurth created menorahs, candlesticks, spice boxes, Torah finials, and other objects for ritual use.

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