LOT 0120

Late Roman Menorah Tile with Traces of Original Pigment

4TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.

5 5/8 in. (577 grams total, 14.2 cm including stand).

Octagonal in plan with chamfered edges to the marble surface; engraved central square with birds in the upper corners and spandrels below, enclosing a bilinear ring with menorah on a stand between etrog and lulav; mounted on a custom-made stand.

From an important UK collection, London, 1970-1990s.
Ex London, UK, collection.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12527-231879.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Exhibited at the Harwich Museum, Harwich, Essex, UK, 21st January-10th March 2025; accompanied by a copy of a photograph of the artefacts on display.

An extremely rare and fine example of the type. The menorah is first mentioned in the Book of Exodus (25:31–40), according to which the design of the lamp was revealed to Moses by God on Mount Sinai. The candlestick was to be forged out of a single piece of gold and was to have six branches, ‘three on one side, and three on the other’, There are no extant images of the menorah from the First Temple period, but many examples dating from the Second Temple period have been recorded.

The menorah was often depicted flanked by symbolic ritual objects. Here, with what appear to be the etrog (citron) and lulav (date-palm branch) of the festival of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). A new Menorah was installed in the Second Temple, built after the return from exile in Babylon. This was looted by Antiochos Epiphanes in 169 BCE when he desecrated the Temple.  With tragic wit, the Jews named him Epimanes, or ‘the madman’, when it became apparent that his policies were violently anti-Jewish. However, after the Maccabean Revolt (167-160 BCE) Judas Maccabeus ordered the construction of a new seven-branched candelabra to be placed in the Temple. The rededication is still celebrated with the festival of Hanukkah (‘to dedicate’). According to rabbinic tradition, the victorious Maccabees could only find a small jug of pure olive oil uncontaminated by virtue of a seal, and although it only contained enough oil to sustain the Menorah for one day, it miraculously lasted for eight days, by which time further oil had been found.

The Menorah was subject to Roman plunder after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE; according to Josephus, it was displayed during the Roman triumphal march, the scene of which is famously depicted in a frieze on the Arch of Titus along with other spoils of the destroyed temple. For centuries, the Menorah and the other temple treasures were displayed as war booty in the Templum Pacis in Rome or in the Imperial Palace and was still there when the city was sacked by the Vandals in 455 CE. Although the Menorah disappeared and the Talmud forbade its reconstruction, it became a popular symbol signifying Judaism. Representations of the Menorah often decorated tombs, walls, floors of synagogues and amulets.