Hanukkah Lamp

Johann Adam Boller

1706–1732

Eight-branched candelabrum with figure on top brandishing sword.
This magnificent cast-silver Hanukkah lamp, modeled on the ancient menorah, was created in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The legendary Judith stands at the top, surrounded by animals and angels below her on either side. With slender curved arms and exquisite wriggle work and tracing along its central shaft and base, the bottom of the lamp is supported by four additional figures, most likely lions. While gold and silver were the most prized materials used for Hanukkah lamps, this was an option only for wealthy individuals and for synagogues. In the homes of middle-class and poor people, the lamps were made from more humble materials.

Credits

Gift of the Estate of Alice B. Goldschmidt / The Jewish Museum, New York.

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

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Creator Bio

Johann Adam Boller

1679–1731
Johann Adam Boller 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 brothers-in-law, Johann Valentin Schüler, Johann Michael Schüler (b. 1650), and his father-in-law Michael Schüler. 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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