Glass cosmetic flask (kohl tube)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with pale green tinge; foot, handles, and trail in same color. Broad, horizontal rim folded out, over, and in; cylindrical neck, joining imperceptibly with slender, piriform body; applied conical foot, with folded tubular edge; deep kick in bottom and pontil mark; two rod handles applied in claw pads to neck, drawn up and out, and then turned in and pressed onto lip of rim. Single fine trail applied as a pad on lower body, drawn up and wound in a spiral twenty-one times around body and neck, ending under one of the handles. Complete, but crack in neck and upper body, and some parts of trail missing; some bubbles; dulling, slight pitting, thick creamy brown weathering, and limy encrustation. Associated with the flask is a small bronze spatula, suitable for spooning the contents out of the deep flask.

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