The antique bronze candlesticks of caryatic basket-bearing Isis priestesses stand on columnar 'altar' drums bearing sacred Egyptian Ibis alternating with crocodiles. The Isis figure relates to those on French-patterned candlesticks in the possession of the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d. 1842) and illustrated in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807 (pl. XI). These candlesticks were possibly executed by the Liverpool sculptor William Bullock who opened his 'Egyptian Museum' in Piccadilly, London in 1812.

The Isis figure derives from a French model of the same pattern as candlesticks delivered in 1809 by Messrs Thomire Duterme & Cie for the Palais de Fontainebleau (J.-P. Samoyault, Pendules et bronze d'ameublement entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris, 1989, p. 202, fig. 190).