Lamp

Item number Edz4723 a-b from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

Two part stoneware lamp. (Note: part a is numbered Edz4723 a, whereas part b has the accession number 682/2 b on it.) Part a is a shallow dish that is glazed grey on its interior . Part b is green lead-glazed and is shaped like a candlestick. The base is dish-like with pedestal protruding from the centre; the pedestal has a raised band around at the centre and at the top flares into another small dish-like area; three small knobs at regular intervals on the rim; a small hole is in the centre top.

History Of Use

Oil-burning lamps of this type were used in shrines and temples as one aspect of worshipping gods and ancestors. By 1980, when this lamp was collected in Vancouver’s Chinatown, most people used red electric lights instead of oil lamps.

Narrative

Although this oil lamp was collected in Vancouver’s Chinatown, it would have been made in China. Temples in Hong Kong often still had oil lamps, and worshippers donated money for “incense and oil”.