Standing Hanukkah Lamp for a Synagogue

Artist Unknown

Date1770/1771 (dedication, per inscription)

MediumCopper alloy, partly gilded (eagle)

DimensionsH. 60 in. (152.4 cm)

ClassificationsMetal

Credit LineGift of Thomas G. and Louise J. Coffey in memory of H. Arthur Sandman

Object number2013.4

On View

On view

ProvenanceCreated Eastern Europe, probably Galicia [present day Poland or Ukraine], 1771/1771. Dr. Abraham (Adolf) Segal (1868–1936), Lemberg, Galicia (present day Lviv, Ukraine), and Vienna, Austria, by 1926; to daughter and son-in-law, Kamilla Segal Spear (1902–1984) and Nathaniel Spear, Jr. (1896–1988), Pittsburgh and New York, as a wedding gift November 27, 1927; to grandson Jeremy N. Spear, New York, August 5, 1987; [Kestenbaum & Co., New York, 1997]; Michael and Judy Steinhardt, New York, 1997; [Steinhardt Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, April 29, 2013, no. 221, illus. (color)]; sold to NCMA, 2013.Published ReferencesJakob Bronner, “Vier ostjüdische Chanukahmenoroth,” Menorah (Vienna & Frankfurt A.M.) vol. 4, no. 12 (December 1926), 709 – 711, discussed and illus. (b-w) 711 (“Besitz des Herrn Direktors A.S., Wien, 1”).

Alles hat seine Zeit / A Time for Everything (Jewish Museum, 2013), 106, illus. 107.

North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection," (Raleigh, NC; North Carolina Museum of Art, 2024), illus. (color) 48.

Gabrielle Anna Berlinger and Ruth von Bernuth, editors, The Lives of Jewish Things: Collecting and Curating Material Culture (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2025), 208.Exhibition HistoryVienna, Austria, Jewish Museum (Jüdisches Museum), 1926.

New York, NY, Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale, Judaica Museum, December 16, 1984–June 20, 1997 (lent by Nathaniel Spear, Jr.)

Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Arts, December 1998 (lent by Michael and Judy Steinhardt).

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection Reimagined" (Thematic Gallery: "Devotion and the Arts in the People's Collection"), June 7, 2025-present.

New York, NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 27, 2001–January 6, 2002 (lent by Michael and Judy Steinhardt).

New York, NY, Museum of Jewish Heritage, November 2006–January 2013 (lent by Michael and Judy Steinhardt).

Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Arts, December 2012–January 2013 (lent by Michael and Judy Steinhardt).

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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