This object, minus the row of Hanukkah lights, was originally a souvenir from Australia. Its decoration consists of emus and kangaroos, as well as the leaves of the Australian tree fern, all symbolic of the Land Down Under. These elements are also seen on other mementos from there, such as an inkstand made in Melbourne to thank an Englishman for his generous support of projects in Australia.
A nineteenth-century Australian souvenir offered at auction in 1985 is very similar to the Hanukkah lamp, and has an emu egg suspended within the frame. The same was probably true for the museum's piece. At some point, its emu egg must have broken, and a secondary use for the frame was devised. A row of square oil containers taken from a Moroccan Hanukkah lamp was added to the base. The oil row could have been added any time in the nineteenth or twentieth century.