Glass cosmetic flask with four compartments (kohl tube)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent blue green, appearing greenish blue at bottom; handle and trails in same color. Rim folded out, round, and in; body comprising four tubes, side by side in a square, made from a single inflated gather by pinching sides vertically to make diaphragms; thick, flattened bottom with trace of pontil scar; basket handle made from three separate rods: two applied over trail decoration as vertical loops at sides, then a thicker rod applied on top of them in an arching loop. On body, a single trail applied near base of side and drawn up in a spiral from left to right twenty-two times, ending below rim; four larger trails, one applied to side of each compartment, applied as large pads over spiral trail near base, then drawn up vertically in tooled loops, ending on top of rim. Intact, but sections of spiral trail missing; some pinprick bubbles in body, many bubbles and some black impurities in handle and trails; pitting, dulling, and patches of iridescent weathering, some soil encrustation in one of tubes.

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art