German Hanukkah Menorah, ca. 1890
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GUEST:
This is my grandfather's silver menorah, which we light on the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. This is, uh, unique in my family, because everybody loves the lion heads for the candles, and this has been, um, in my family since my grandparents have passed down to my, my father, and that was then eventually passed down to me.
APPRAISER:
Your grandfather got it in what year, do you think?
GUEST:
I would think that he probably got in the 1940s, maybe 1950s, but I honestly don't know the history of when he got it or why.
APPRAISER:
When did your family come over from Europe?
GUEST:
My grandfather came over in the 1930s, and over the course of the 1930s, the entire family made its way over.
APPRAISER:
What country did they come from?
GUEST:
Uh, from Poland.
APPRAISER:
This is an olive oil-burning menorah. We also have candle-burning menorahs. Now, if I turned it around, we're going to find a mark. And the mark I find here is 800, which is the assay of the silver, and then a slim crescent, and a crown-- that's the mark for Germany. Not Poland, Germany.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
That mark starts in 1884, and continues to the present day. I'm somewhat surprised not to find the maker mark on it. It's handmade. Which sort of precludes it having been made any later, any much later, than the turn of the century. It is a menorah of an assimilating family of Jews. We've got these heraldic lions rampant holding up the tablets of the laws. That's the Jewish iconography to it. Everything else is fashion. You've got Gothic revival examples in these arches here, the Baroque influence with the scroll flourishes and floral groups, and you've also got archaeological revival going on in here, and to top it all off, the little lions are wearing crowns. This has got everything going on. This is what really excites me about this piece. It's an example of a piece of silver that was purchased for somebody's wedding, more likely than not, and somehow or another, it got into your family. We're lucky it's here, because most of these things were melted and destroyed.
GUEST:
Considering the family, my family was not particularly wealthy...
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
...when they came over from Europe. I would be surprised if they had a silver menorah on the way over. So I'm certain that it was picked up within the United States.
APPRAISER:
We've got eight lights, these little lions here, lit consecutively in gathering numbers in the eight days of Hanukkah. To fill the oil wells, which open here, olive oil, which is stored in here, is poured into the shammash, and then the lights are lit. It's a rare piece. Most of them never made it out of Europe. At a retail level, I would give this an estimate of $4,000 to $6,000.
GUEST:
Oh, wow, that is, um, that's amazing. (laughs) It's special to the family, and we only light it on special occasions, because of the complexity of it.
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