Glass stirring rod
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Stirring rod: translucent cobalt blue with opaque white trails. Cylindrical rod, slightly bent at top end, tightly twisted to produce spiral fluting; bottom end tooled into a globular knob, the top end is formed into a tapering loop or ring handle by bending the rod round a full 360 degrees and attaching it to the top of the shaft of the rod, in profile aslant to rod. Complete, but broken and repaired at top of rod where turned out to form handle; some dulling, iridescence, and patches of faint brownish weathering. Disk: translucent light blue with opaque white trail. Low, conical body with ridged surface, flattened at center; flat bottom but with shallow spiral grooves; vertical hole. Trail applied to upper surface in a spiral from center to outer edge. Intact; many bubbles; some dulling and pitting, and faint brownish enamel-like weathering. Made by winding trail in a spiral around rod. The disk is firmly stuck in one place, aslant to the rod. This object was used to stir or mix an ointment or cosmetic stored in a long-necked bottle. The mixture could then be extracted in small amounts using the tip of the rod. The perforated disk that is attached to the rod resembles objects that are usually called spindle whorls. Here, however, it was clearly added to the rod during manufacture and served as a stopper.
Greek and Roman Art
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
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.