In 1995, Valentina Chekhova, the widow of the writer’s nephew Sergey Chekhov, donated a pear-shaped copper icon lamp with decorative patterns, a wooden handle, and a cross on the cap. This item is believed to have belonged to the Chekhov family.

An icon lamp was placed in front of an icon at home. It was filled with oil, which burned for a long time and generated a dim light. In Orthodox liturgical books, an icon lamp also refers to a portable lamp, a censer, which is used by a deacon or priest in the entrance procession, as well as during a bishop’s service. Its light symbolizes the undying faith in Christ which drives away evil and unbelief.

Anton Chekhov’s father, Pavel Chekhov, was a devout Christian. All five of his sons were required to sing in the church choir and pray daily. Their modest Taganrog house where the writer was born was described as follows,

Petit bourgeois from Taganrog referred to such a room as ‘the hall’. It served as a dining room, living room, and study at the same time. In the center of the room, there was a sliding table, along the walls there were some Vienna chairs with woven seats, and in the corner, under a lot of icons and the everlasting light of an icon lamp, there was a corner cabinet.

At home, the lamps were hung from the ceiling or placed on a special table in front of the iconostasis. A basic icon lamp consists of several parts: the “lamp holder” made of metal or, rarer, glass or porcelain, the “insert” — the cup that holds the oil, the “suspension” — the chain that is used to hang the lamp, and the “smoke bonnet” that catches the soot.