Glass sprinkler bottle in the shape of a fish

Glass sprinkler bottle in the shape of a fish

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent pale blue green; applied trails and blobs in translucent deep turquoise blue. Rim tooled to form open mouth with projecting upper and lower jaws; cylindrical neck expanding downwards, folded in at base to form diaphragm with small central hole; lentoid body, tapering downwards, drawn out and pressed flat at bottom to form solid tail. Tail tooled into two projecting, knobbed fins; a thick trail applied under rim to form outline to mouth; two coiled blobs applied to sides of upper body as eyes; projecting trail applied at side of body as dorsal fin; a smaller trail applied at base of other side below tail as another fin. Complete, except for weathered chips to both fin trails; a few large bubbles and blowing striations; dulling, iridescent whitish weathering, and some loose soil in interior. Greenish, with blue plastic decoration.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass sprinkler bottle in the shape of a fishGlass sprinkler bottle in the shape of a fishGlass sprinkler bottle in the shape of a fishGlass sprinkler bottle in the shape of a fishGlass sprinkler bottle in the shape of a fish

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.