A rectangular wooden trough and a black-lacquered brass-framed roof-shaped cover. Two sides of the cover have clear glass panels, at an angle of 90 degrees. Accompanying the instrument is a circular wooden jar with a threaded stopper and an ivory spout. It is used for storing the mercury when the instrument is not in use.

The artificial horizon is contained in a fitted rectangular wooden box, with an inlaid brass plate on the lid inscribed ‘Presented by Greenwich Hospital to Richard Godden’. Written in pencil inside the lid is the inscription, ‘This formerly belonged to Admiral Douglas’. The lid contains a trade label for G. Whitbread, 2 Grenada Terrace, and Commercial Road, London.

The text inside the lid possibly refers to Admiral Sir (Henry) Percy Douglas (1876-1939), a hydrographer who joined the Navy in the training vessel HMS ‘Britannia’ in 1890.