Kohl tube and stick

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This container for an eye cosmetic called kohl, is a marvelous little portable makeup kit. It consists of an octagonal wooden tube with an ivory base and lid. The lid swivels around a wooden peg. Four wire loops are attached to the main body of the container. The two on the front hold a piece of ivory carved in the shape of an ancient Egyptian door bolt. When pushed upward this bolt fit into another wire loop on the lid (now missing) and closed the container. The two loops on the side of the container hold the kohl stick with which the owner applied the cosmetic. This kohl tube was found in a basket with a set of cosmetic implements (26.7.837a–d), which includes a mirror, a razor, a whetstone, and a pair of tweezers.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art