Buying silver menorah

amother

Violet

Sun, Feb 05 2017, 4:51 pm

I know, it's not menorah season... but a family member would like to buy us a gift of a menorah, so we are choosing one now. We live far far OOT, so just looking at pictures online.

My question is, what "scale" is the right size for a family? The really tremendous size ones are surely for a shul institution. Any sense of what size would be too small/too big?

My husband likes the somewhat traditionally shaped ones with a tall stand.

Any advice? Or care to share what you have?

amother

Violet

Sun, Feb 05 2017, 5:08 pm

I guess another way of asking this is... The one my husband likes is 16 inches tall. Is that totally crazy?

harriet

Sun, Feb 05 2017, 7:06 pm

amother wrote:

I guess another way of asking this is... The one my husband likes is 16 inches tall. Is that totally crazy?

Not sure what you mean but for reference... ds just got one (bar mitzvah present, several people, was about $600), it's 13 inches. DH has one (bought when we got married many years ago, don't remember the price but I think $1kish, would cost way more now I think), it's 19 inches and seems comparably size to other "head of the household" menorah I've seen...

So if you're asking if 16 inches is too high for your dh's, I'd say no.

I hope he enjoys and uses in good health!

doctorima

Sun, Feb 05 2017, 11:25 pm

I don't know how tall DH's is, but I think it's definitely at least 16 inches, and most likely more, so no, 16 inches doesn't sound at all inappropriate.

zaq

Mon, Feb 06 2017, 9:47 am

The first thing you should consider is the height of the tallest shelf of your breakfront or wherever you plan to display it.

amother

Violet

Mon, Feb 06 2017, 10:09 am

Thank uou all for your responses! Very helpful to know this height is not uncommon for a home. I guess I come from a humble background... my father only ever had much smaller menorahs.

That's another thing, we have no place to display the menorah! No breakfront. In general we don't have many valuables (no silver leichter as of yet). This would be our first item that I could honestly say now I'm afraid if someone would break into our house. So my first thought is that we now should get a breakfront or some such furniture so we can enjoy the menorah throughout the year. But what do you think? Is it smarter NOT to display it for that reason (not to get robbed)?

OOTBubby

Mon, Feb 06 2017, 5:11 pm

amother wrote:

You should get it insured.

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Feb 06 2017, 5:59 pm

I did not grow up with a breakfront and I don't have one myself. I never liked the idea of silver on display, plus then you have to keep it all polished and shiny. I much prefer to store my silver out of sight except when it is in use.

That being said, we recently inherited a glass fronted display type of case, but we plan on filling it with glass and pottery and other interesting items we have picked up over the years. The silver will stay packed away as usual.

OOTBubby

Mon, Feb 06 2017, 6:14 pm

With a good breakfront you didn't need to polish -- it is air tight and the silver does not tarnish.