resent
discussion was introduced, is represented in the accompanying plate.
Including the stand it is three feet high. On a rectangular plinth
rises a rectangular pillar, crowned by a capricious capital. On the
front of the pillar is a mask of a Bacchante, with fine features and
long flowing hair; and on the opposite side, the head of a bull, with
the Greek word Bucranion. From the extreme points of the abacus, four
ornamental branches, beautifully chased, project; the lamps which now
hang from them, though ancient, also, are not those which belong to
the stand, and were not found with it. They are nearly alike in
figure, but differ in size. Three of them are ornamented with various
animals, the fourth is plain. One of them has each of its ends wrought
into the form of a shell. Above are two eagles in high relief, with
the thunderbolt of Jupiter in their talons. Another has two bulls'
heads, a third two elephants' heads projecting from the sides. The
latter is suspended by two dolphins, instead of the chains generally
in use, whose tails are united, and attached to a small ball and ring.
The pillar is not placed in the center, but at one end of the plinth,
which is the case in almost every lamp of this description yet found.
The space thus obtained may have served as a stand for the oil vase
used in trimming the lamps. The plinth is beautifully damasked, or
inlaid, in imitation of a vine, the leaves of which are of silver, the
stem and fruit of bright brass. On one side is an altar with wood and
fire upon it; on the other a Bacchus, naked, with his thick hair
plaited and bound with ivy. He rides a tiger, and has his left hand in
the attitude of holding reins, which time probably has destroyed; with
the right he raises a drinking-horn. The workmanship of this lamp is
exquisitely delicate in all its parts.

Before we quit this subject we have still one candelabrum to notice,
which for simplicity of design and delicacy of execution is hardly to
be surpassed by any in the Neapolitan collection. The stem is formed
of a liliaceous plant, divided into two branches, each of which
supports a flat disc, which may represent the flower, upon which a
lamp was placed. At the base is a mass of bronze which gives stability
to the whole, upon which a Silenus is seated, earnestly engaged in
trying to pour wine from a skin which he holds in his left hand into a
cup in his right. In this figure all the distinctive marks of the
companion a