Auction 63 - Rare and Important Items
Monumental Synagogue Lamp – Ludwig Yehudah Wolpert – New-York
Opening: $20,000
Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000
Sold for: $25,000
Including buyer's premium
A monumental synagogue lamp created by Ludwig Yehudah Wolpert (1900-1981). [New-York, ca. 1945-1970].
Cast brass, bent and sawn; wiring. Signed: Wolpert.
A monumental seven-branched lamp. A long legend, in sawn letters, appears on front of the lamp, in a style characteristic of Wolpert's works, with verses of consolation from the Haftara to the Parasha "BeHa'alotcha" and Shabat-Chanukkah, from Zechariah's vision (in which appears a depiction of the seven-branched lamp): "Roni vesimchi bat Zion…" (Zechariah 2; 14 and 16).
A sketch for the design of this lamp is held in the New-York Jewish Museum, along with an early photograph of the lamp, showing two additional oil-fonts on both sides (apparently over the years the oil fonts were removed and the lamp was converted from a Hanukkah lamp to a seven-branched lamp), both items were donated to the Jewish Museum by Wolpert's widow (see enclosed material). Enclosed is a photograph of the lamp side by side with other ceremonial objects in "Beth-El" synagogue in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Height: 195 cm. Width of branches: 70 cm, width of base: 49 cm. Good overall condition. Loose screw to one of the oil fonts. A number of screws are missing. Some stains. Electric wire is cut, with no plug.
Provenance: purchased from "Beth-El" synagogue in Quincy, Massachusetts, upon its closure, February 2013.
Cast brass, bent and sawn; wiring. Signed: Wolpert.
A monumental seven-branched lamp. A long legend, in sawn letters, appears on front of the lamp, in a style characteristic of Wolpert's works, with verses of consolation from the Haftara to the Parasha "BeHa'alotcha" and Shabat-Chanukkah, from Zechariah's vision (in which appears a depiction of the seven-branched lamp): "Roni vesimchi bat Zion…" (Zechariah 2; 14 and 16).
A sketch for the design of this lamp is held in the New-York Jewish Museum, along with an early photograph of the lamp, showing two additional oil-fonts on both sides (apparently over the years the oil fonts were removed and the lamp was converted from a Hanukkah lamp to a seven-branched lamp), both items were donated to the Jewish Museum by Wolpert's widow (see enclosed material). Enclosed is a photograph of the lamp side by side with other ceremonial objects in "Beth-El" synagogue in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Height: 195 cm. Width of branches: 70 cm, width of base: 49 cm. Good overall condition. Loose screw to one of the oil fonts. A number of screws are missing. Some stains. Electric wire is cut, with no plug.
Provenance: purchased from "Beth-El" synagogue in Quincy, Massachusetts, upon its closure, February 2013.
Jewish Ceremonial Art
Jewish Ceremonial Art