Hanging Shabbat Lamp made of Pewter – The Netherlands, 18th Century

Hanging Shabbat Lamp made of Pewter – The Netherlands, 18th Century

Hanging Lamp for the Sabbath and holidays. [The Netherlands, 18th Century].
Cast pewter (unmarked).
Hanging lamp of a type characteristically used by Sephardi Jews of Spanish or Portuguese origin in the Netherlands (as well as by Sephardi Jews in England). Its origins can be traced to West Friesland (a region situated in the north of the Netherlands).
This item bears the characteristic structure of a lamp of this type. It has five parts, not including the missing original suspension hook: a multi-edged, fan-shaped crown, an upright support (baluster) which also functions as a reflector, an oil pan in the shape of a seven-point star, a small drip pan, and a bud-shaped weight.
Three 18th-century versions of this type of Shabbat lamp are known to exist, made of brass, silver, and pewter. All three versions are relatively rare, but the brass version is the least uncommon, with dozens of documented examples. The silver versions are rarer; only some 19 lamps are known to exist, not all of them intact. Surprisingly, the ostensibly inexpensive pewter versions are the rarest of all; thanks to the relative fragility and breakability of the material, very few copies have survived, and of these, in effect only a handful are entirely intact. Four pewter hanging Shabbat lamps are kept in the Jewish Museum, Amsterdam, but only one of them is intact, one is kept in the collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (117/39), two others are part of a private collection in Zurich, Switzerland, and one other copy was auctioned at Christie’s, Amsterdam, May 27, 1997, lot no. 456.

Height: Approx. 80 cm. Overall good condition.