Handcut strips of silver that have been bent into curvilinear shapes, with semicircle of candle-sockets, complete with drip-pans. A cast-made pair of birds, appearing to be ducks or geese, flank the servant light, while at top as the finial, a large casting of a hen or rooster. While this overall form of lamp is known as hailing from Iraq, we cannot locate any other Iraqi lamps featuring the animals displayed on our example. Birds such as peacocks were widely used in Iraqi and other Middle-Eastern and North African Chanukah lamps, however the usage of the animals featured on our lamp likely have more to do with the surrounding Islamic culture than revealing any meaning in Judaism, which is typical overall for many motifs found on Jewish ritual objects made in lands where Islam was the dominant religion. Literature: The Stieglitz Collection, Masterpieces of Jewish Art", (The Israel Museum, 1987), items 182-183.
