Hanukkah Lamp

A number of lamps, most of them made in Austria, transformed the traditional bench shape into that of a sofa. The back of the "couch" is either arched or more rectangular in form, while sofa arms, often curving outward or rolled, are added on either side. These lamps for the most part imitate furniture styles prevalent in the Rococo period of the second half of the eighteenth century. This style is also carried through into the ornamentation of the sofa back, which often consists of elaborate eighteenth-century baroque scrollwork or shell-like Rococo scrolls. Judging from the examples in the collection, the sofa form appears to have been popular from around the 1840s to 1870s.
The motif on the back of this lamp, the Ark of the Covenant surrounded by clouds, is an unusual one for a Hanukkah lamp. The Ark contained the Ten Commandments and was housed in the Holy of Holies of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Its use here could refer to the rededication of the Temple that is celebrated at Hanukkah. However, by the time that the events of the Hanukkah story took place, the Ark of the Covenant had been missing for hundreds of years.