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Sources for business history: plans of New Court

Sources for art history: Catalogue of the pictures of Alfred de Rothschild 1901

Sources for yachting history: Plans for Nathaniel von Rothschild's yacht Veglia 1905

Sources for natural history: Walter 2nd Lord Rothschild and his zebra carriage: c.1910

Sources for global financial history: Map of lines of the Brazil Railway Company: c.1920

Sources for business history: index cards to bank files

Sources for social history: Rothschild Hospital Paris: 1920s

Sources for business history: detail of a Rothschild bond coupon

Sources for architectural history: Halton House: 1890s

Sources for the history of travel: Lionel de Rothschild's tours of Spain: 1909

Sources for local history: Tring Park: c.1900

Sources for Royal history: shooting party with Edward Prince of Wales: 1893

Sources for political history: Lionel de Rothschild: first Jewish MP: 1858

Sources for sporting history: St Amant winner of the Derby: 1904

Sources for local history: gardeners at Aston Clinton: 1899

Sources for Rothschild family history: Lionel de Rothschild's yacht Rhodora: 1927

Sources for London history: entrance to New Court: 1965

Sources for design history: plans for Lionel de Rothschild's Rolls-Royce: 1930

Sources for business history: Rothschild gold bars produced by the Royal Mint Refinery: 1930s

Sources for business history: letters of August Belmont Rothschild Agent in New York: 1860s

Exhibition - Jewish collections

1: Silver Hanukkah lamp, c.1800-1805

Silver Hanukkah lamp discovered in the vaults at old New Court.

Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE.

The maker’s mark is that of Erhard(t) Christian Specht of Frankfurt. He was the son and brother of silversmiths. The latter used a very similar mark but the one on the Rothschild menorah is clearly that of Erhard(t) Christian who was baptised in 1766 and became a master of the Silversmith's Guild in 1791. In 1796 he married  the daughter of an Arnhem silversmith. He died in 1806. 

The piece is absolutely typical of German neo-classicism of the period, and it is possible that Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836) brought this piece with him from the family home in the Judengasse in Frankfurt, when he came to England at the turn of the nineteenth century. The 'servant light' is possibly not contemporary with the piece.

RAL 000/1911/23