Glass octagonal bottle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with yellowish tinge. Cylindrical neck; horizontal but slightly pushed-in shoulder; octagonal body with vertical sides expanding slightly downwards, slight hollow in top of each side, and projecting ridge to edges on lower part of body; kick in bottom with pontil scar. On bottom, Greek letters in relief arranged in a circle: ALEXANDROS in retrograde. Complete body, but rim and most of neck missing; deep pitting, dulling, and some iridescent weathering on exterior, soil encrustation, thick enamel-like weathering, and brilliant iridescence on interior.

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