This rare and highly sculptural lamp form, showing a dog curled up with its head resting on its front paws, features a three-line inscription on the underside of the wick projection, with the middle line possibly identifying the maker as Apollodos. The motif of a sleeping dog, popular in Roman decorative art, symbolised loyalty, reliability, and domestic guardianship. The expression on the dog’s face, the naturalistic curl of its body, the collar, the character of the eyes, the finely detailed paws, and the stippled texture of the fur are all rendered with notable skill. The wick projection flares outwards creating concave straight sides, the base is circular and raised on a foot, an air hole around which the body of the dog is curled. The handle, originally cast separately and soldered to the main body, is now missing, leaving a hole at the back where it was attached.

A close comparison can be made with a lamp in the British Museum, which depicts a collared mastiff or hunting hound resting on its paws, and is said to have come from Crete. Another closely related lamp in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA, shows a greyhound curled up with a puppy, and is said to originate from Alexandria.