Glass cosmetic flask (kohl tube)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent blue green; trail in same color. Tubular rim, folded out, over, and in; cylindrical neck, flaring upwards and joining imperceptibly below with slender, piriform body; splayed tubular foot, made by folding; deep kick in bottom with central pontil scar. Openwork zigzag trail applied to neck and wound round with eight upward loops attached to outer edge of rim, then drawn down and wound four times around lower neck as a spiral. Complete, but large internal in body; pinprick and a few larger bubbles, and large black impurity in neck below rim; some dulling, limy encrustation, and 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