Glass cosmetic flask with four compartments (kohl tube)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent blue green; handles and trails partly in same color, partly in deep translucent blue, appearing black. Everted tubular rim, folded over and in; body comprising four tubes, side by side in a rough square shape, made from a single inflated gather by pinching and folding sides vertically to make diaphragm; flat bottom with pontil scar; four handles, applied over tops of vertical trails, drawn up and out, and down, then turned inwards and dropped onto top edge of rim. Four trails, one on each tube, applied as a pad below rim, drawn down vertically, and trailed off on lower body, decorated with horizontal tooling indents. Broken and repaired around lower body, weathered chip in rim, and on breaks in tops of handles; pinprick bubbles and blowing striations; dulling, slight pitting, and iridescent weathering.

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