Hanukkah Lamp

Rötger Herfurth was a Christian silversmith who worked in Frankfurt. Herfurth became a master silversmith in 1748, joining the Leschhorn family workshop, which was active for about a century. He produced numerous ceremonial objects for Jewish clients, following a fire in Frankfurt’s Jewish ghetto in the early eighteenth century that claimed much of the community’s existing Judaica. As a result of restrictions imposed on Jews prior to Emancipation that restricted their access to entering the silver-working trade, ceremonial objects were commissioned from Christian artisans. Herfurth created menorahs, candlesticks, spice boxes, Torah finials, and other objects for ritual use.