Hanukkah lamp. Djerba, Tunisia, [18th or 19th century].
Earthenware, painted and glazed.
Rectangular Hanukkah lamp, supported by two legs. The oil fonts take the form of eight small recesses, with pinched edges on one side for wicks. Apparently, a servant light (now missing) was placed in the upper part of the lamp.
This is a particularly rare and early specimen. In all likelihood, this model – undocumented in the literature – represents a missing link between the stone lamps used in North Africa and the more familiar earthenware lamps of Tunisia, which are generally glazed in a greenish hue (in similar fashion to the present lamp). But in the latter group, the oil fonts are elevated, that is, supported on top of small columns, and are similar in design to ancient earthenware oil lamps.
Length: 22 cm. Width: 10 cm. Height: 3.5 cm. Fair-good condition. No servant light. Minor fractures.
Reference: North African Lights, items nos. 112-13.
Purchased from a Jewish family in Djerba, November 2005.