THE SASSOON SILVER-GILT HANGING SABBATH LAMP, MARKED IR, PROBABLY FOR JOHANN JACOB RUNECKE, FÜRTH, MID 18TH CENTURY

Possibly Philip Salomons

Reuben D. Sassoon, to his sister-in-law

Mrs. Solomon D. Sassoon (Flora Abraham), to her grandson

Rabbi Solomon D. Sassoon of Letchworth, to a Sassoon descendant until

Sold Sotheby's, Tel Aviv, April 24-25, 1997, lot 19

Private Collection, New York, sold to the current owner circa 2000

IR and Fürth

The identity of this maker has not been confirmed, but a corpus of over 70 objects has been recorded. Rosenberg lists him, no. 2157, as possibly J. Rimonim, and lists two Torah Shields by him; it was under this name that his work was recorded in the mid-20th century. Rafi Grafman in Crowning Glory, Silver Torah Ornaments of the Jewish Museum, New York, discusses his identity p. 93, with reference to a Torah Shield no. 32. Apparently, all Judaica from Furth is marked with this IR punch, and only Judaica is thus marked. One suggestion is that this is the (undocumented) mark of Johann Jakob Runneke, one of the founders of the Fürth silversmiths’ guild in 1767. Another is that this may be a special guild punch for Judaica by any silversmith, the guild possibly not allowing individual maker’s marks.

Fürth is only seven miles from Nuremberg, but unlike that town it allowed Jewish settlement. In 1670 the Jewish population was swelled by families exiled from Vienna, and in 1697 a new synagogue was built. In 1719 the community consisted of 400 families, protected by the Bishop and allowed to largely govern themselves, in return for protection payments. The prominent families of Fürth had relations with many of the local Courts and served as merchants and bankers. During the 18th century the town was a center for Jewish printing, and in 1763 a Jewish orphanage was established; the town became a center for Jewish culture. By the early 19th century almost a quarter of the inhabitants were Jewish and the town was nicknamed “Little Jerusalem”, while in neighboring Nuremberg Jews were not allowed to settle until the 1820s.

Theodor Harburger, in his inventory of Jewish art in Bavaria during the 1930s, recorded a Sabbath lamp very similar to the offered lot, see Die Inventarisation jüdischer Kunst- und Kulturdenkmäler in Bayern, vol. 2, p. 210. The lamp, identified as being in the Jewish Orphanage, has the same star-shaped base above stepped oil pan (though missing the bottom finial), with a gallery of barley-twist columns with figures between and bells above, and the same scrolling candle arms with straight sconces as on the Sassoon lamp. Above this point the shaping of the spire and the orb are the same, but the piercing is less rococo and more Neoclassical, suggesting a date slightly after this lamp, but still adhering to the overall shape established by Frankfurt Sabbath lamps of circa 1700.

Sassoon Family Descent

Reuben D. Sassoon (1835-1905), the first recorded owner of this lamp, was one of the sons of David Sassoon of Bombay. The family was described as “the Rothschilds of the East”, but Reuben established himself in London. He was a Victorian grandee, receiving the Royal Victorian Order and being caricatured by Vanity Fair, travelling with the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, and hosting Lillie Langtry. His London residence was 1 Belgrave Square, with another house at Hove, near Brighton. He married Catherine Sassoon and they had six children.

Reuben Sassoon was a major lender to the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in 1887. The header to “The Sassoon Collection of Hebrew Ecclesiastical Art”, numbers 2031 to 2065, notes “the bulk of this Collection was made by the late Philip Salomons, Esq.”, Sassoon’s neighbor in Hove. The current lamp is not listed, but Salomons was one of the first collectors of Judaica, and unusual in including historic German, Polish and Italian pieces alongside his English examples.

Much of Reuben Sassoon’s Judaica collection passed to his sister-in-law (and great-niece) Flora Gubbay Sassoon (1859-1936). She married Solomon David Sassoon (1841-1894), who ran the family business in Shanghai and Hong Kong; a great philanthropist, he was also a Hebraist and Talmudist. Of Flora, family chronicler Cecil Roth wrote, “she walked like a queen, talked like a sage, and entertained like an oriental potentate.” She took over the family business on her husband’s death, moved to London in 1901, and established a reputation as a noted scholar and patron of Jewish causes.

Her son, David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942) continued in the same vein, being particularly noted for his exceptional Hebrew library, while her grandson Rabbi Solomon David Sassoon (1915-1985) was an educator and philanthropist, gathering the family collections in his house in Letchworth, outside London.