Cosmetic Spoon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The bowl of this wooden cosmetic spoon is carved in the form of an outstretched hand holding a unionid (a freshwater Nile mollusk). At the opposite end of the long handle is a waterfowl with its head bent backward. This bird is often identified as a duck, but the long neck suggests that it might instead be a goose, associated in other examples with the earth god Geb. The spiral handle here is unusual, as most such shafts are smooth. Once thought to be simple toilet items, "cosmetic spoons" are now thought to be ritual items rich with iconography connecting them to fertility and rites of renewal.

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