Glass trick bottle or cup

Glass trick bottle or cup

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent deep olive green, appearing opaque black. Rim folded down, over, and in, forming slight inner lip; broad, uneven mouth; cylindrical neck expanding downwards to join squat bulbous body; bottom deeply push in to form hemispherical concavity. Stands aslant. Intact; pinprick bubbles; some pitting and iridescence, with one area of dulling where thick enamel-like brown weathering has flaked off. Essentially a perfume bottle with a deeply pressed in bottom. When inverted it appears as a 'double-walled' cup, hence this type of vessel has previously been described as an 'egg cup.'

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass trick bottle or cupGlass trick bottle or cupGlass trick bottle or cupGlass trick bottle or cupGlass trick bottle or cup

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.