LARGE BEZALEL SILVER CHANUKAH MENORAH.

c. 1930

Exquisite repousse, filigree and acid-etched designs adorn this grand Menorah. Eight branches emanating from central shaft supporting tray and oil urns, featuring repeating orb with blue enamel detail. Tubular stem terminating on square angled base further decorated on each side with applique bosses and lions statant flanking central roundels (possibly later) each bearing classic Jewish iconographic symbols: crown, menorah, Star-of-David, oil ewer and Tower of David. Early stamp of Bezalel School. 20.5 x 14.5 inches.

A specially commissioned Menorah created by Ze’ev Raban. One of only a handful executed in this style. A near-identical example of this magnificent Menorah appears in the permanent collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh (object number: 2005.8). A variant was exhibited at the Bernard Museum of Judaica, Congregation Emanu-el, New York “Bezalel Art, Craft & Jewish National Identity” (2012). Another appears in the Michael Jesselson Collection, New York, as illustrated in: Tel Aviv Museum of Art Catalogue, “Ze’ev Raban: A Hebrew Symbolist” (2001) item 91. Finally, see the photographic illustration of Bezalel artist Moshe Chovev lighting the Chanukah lights, Israel Museum Catalogue Inventory List, p. 118.