Hanukkah Lamp

This lamp represents two figures holding long tapers for lighting the Temple menorah. They are clean shaven and wear tricorn hats, wigs, skirted coats, and breeches. This costume and grooming are typical of fashionable Dutch gentlemen of the eighteenth century. In many countries of Europe and the Middle East, Jews were required to wear distinctive colors, badges, hats, or other specific items of clothing. However, no such requirements existed in Holland, and the Sephardi community in particular delighted in wearing the latest styles. By contrast, Dutch Ashkenazi Jews were bearded and wore more traditional styles of clothing, such as the tall-crowned, wide-brimmed hat of Rembrandt's day.