Hanukkah lamp adorned with a pair of lions and a pair of birds, bearing the name of the owner, "Yeshuah Zarka", and an additional inscription, all cast in the brass. [Tunisia (or Algeria), ca. 1800].
Cast brass; copper nails.
Rare, massively large item, representing the prototype of a group of North African Hanukkah lamps; bearing the name of its owner, "Yeshuah Zarka may his Rock and Redeemer protect him", and the Hebrew inscription "For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light", both inscribed as part of the original brass casting process.
The back plate consists of two sections held together with nails (and with the added support of a flat plate connected from behind). It is shaped in the form of an architectonic arch adorned with tendrils, leaves, and flowers, and surmounted by a five-lobed crown-like ornament, itself surmounted by a clover-like ornament topped with a suspension ring. Two large, crested birds support the crown from either side, and a pair of lions with outstretched tongues are positioned further down along the arch. The lion, bird, and crown ornaments were all cast individually, and all are held in place with nails. At the base of the arch is a horizontal strip bearing the Hebrew inscription, produced as part of the lamp’s original casting process: "For the commandment is a lamp / Yeshuah Zarka / and the teaching is light / [abbreviation] may his Rock and Redeemer protect him". Two diminutive steeples appear on either side of the arch, toward the bottom.
The side panels are also arch-shaped, and they are both decorated with matching vegetal patterns, as well as a steeple-shaped ornament on the façade and a bird-shaped ornament on the top of the arch (although the bird is missing from one of the two side panels). The row of oil fonts is imposingly large, and has a pair of tabs on either side for insertion into corresponding slots in the side panels, as well as a pair of tabs on the back for insertion into corresponding slots in the back panel.
We have been unable to conclusively ascertain the identity of the "Yeshuah Zarka" whose name features in the inscription. One particular individual by that name was the son of Moshe Zarka and the grandson of Rabbi Yosef Zarka; the latter was widely regarded as one of the greatest of Tunisian rabbis of the 18th century, living from ca. 1722 to ca. 1798, but not much is known regarding his grandson Yeshuah. If the owner of the lamp is indeed this Yeshuah Zarka, we may assume that the present object was created toward the end of the 18th century or in the early decades of the 19th. But experts have dated this particular model of Hanukkah lamp to the 18th century, so it is quite possible that the individual in question may be some other member of this same Tunisian rabbinic family. Perhaps it is the son-in-law of Yosef Zarka, "Rabbi Ye’ushah", mentioned by the Hida (Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai, 1724-1806) in his book titled "Ma’agal Tov", documenting his journey to Tunisia in 1773-74.
Apart from the present Hanukkah lamp, only three copies of this particular type are known to exist, all belonging to museum collections: Two are in the collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (one – item no. 358-11-65;118/194, previously in the Abraham Ticho Collection – having only the pair of lions; and the other, item no. B02.0972;118/509, previously belonging to the Bezalel Collection, having neither the lions nor the birds, instead being surmounted by a "hamsa" symbol with a servant light in front); and one other copy – in the collection of the Jewish Museum, New York (item no. F4656, previously belonging to the JTS collection, also having neither lions nor birds). The present Hanukkah lamp, belonging to the Gross Family Collection, is the only known copy of this type bearing both the lion and bird adornments.

Height: 27 cm. Width: 22 cm. Overall good condition. Fragments of lions’ tails missing. Bird ornament missing on one side panel.

References:
1. The Hanukkah Lamp, by Mordechai Narkiss. Jerusalem, 1939, p. 66, item no. 152 (Hebrew with English summary).
2. North African Lights: Hanukkah Lamps from the Zeyde Schulmann Collection in the Israel Museum, by Chaya Benjamin. Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, 2003, English-language edition, p. 161, checklist item nos. 120 and 121; pp. 147, 150-51, 181.
3. Five Centuries of Hanukkah Lamps from The Jewish Museum: A Catalogue Raisonné, by Susan Braunstein. New York, The Jewish Museum / New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2004, p. 325.
Reference:
1. The Isaac Einhorn Collection, Tel Aviv.
2. The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, 010.002.078.
This Hanukkah lamp is documented on the Center for Jewish Art (CJA) website, item no. 37406.