Useful little holder made of metal and painted black to resemble cast iron. A small strike place is included on the side, this seems to be a small piece of fine grade sand/glasspaper which could soon be replaced when worn out. For all those people, who like me, feel more comfortable with imperial measurements than metric the ornament stands at 8" to it's highest point: The matches are not the extra long ones that you can find in your local supermarket at nearly 4", but are 9" long, there are approximately 50 in the bundle provided, and look very substantial; i.e not going to snap easily when you attempt to strike them. I think they will be very useful for lighting a woodburner although I haven't tried them yet. Checking Amazons website for replacement matches though I must say that I find delivery costs absurd saying that the bundle weighs less than 3 ounces. I will more than likely replace with the old-fashioned wooden spills probably available from a tobacconist, but certainly on the internet with a simple search engine search.