This unusual lamp is in the form of an imposing two-story building with classical-style pediment and columns. The current oil row is a replacement; based on similar examples, the original oil containers, placed on the balcony, would have consisted of rampant lions.
By far the most fascinating feature on the lamp is the clock placed in the pediment, all the more distinctive because the numbers are rendered in Hebrew, which uses letters of the alphabet instead of numerals. The addition of the timepiece gives the building the appearance of a town hall, whose clock would strike the hours for all citizens to hear. Clocks are included on several other architectural-form Hanukkah lamps as well, most of which appear to come from eastern Europe. For example, a lamp said to have belonged to the rabbi of Trisk in the Ukraine was, by the time of its publication in 1928, in the possession of a Jew from Warsaw. Hanukkah lamps with timepieces may have been inspired by the elaborate table clocks that became popular in the early nineteenth century. The owner could light the lamp on Hanukkah, and display it the rest of the year as a clock.
The origin and date of this lamp, which is not marked, can be determined by comparison to other lamps with similar elements. These include a lamp at the Skirball Cultural Center with an inscription date of 1813/14 that is almost certainly eastern European, and a second lamp sold at Christie's with a pre-1851 Polish assay mark.