I always pose my own hands for reference in any piece of artwork. I did it in Blade Runner and others and I did it many times for Aladdin. Mr. Katzenberg was looking for just the right gesture and so he was shown many, many variations until just the right one registered with his view of the marketing strategy. I did not have any such lamp prop to pose with so I photographed my hands holding a Disney pedestal mug. How appropriate!
Here is the original art for one of the posters used in the first release of Aladdin. John is known for capturing a feeling with a visual image, and this is a good example.