Late Roman Period Glass Sprinkler
300-400 A.D
The narrow hole in the neck of this glass bottle identifies it as a sprinkler. Such vessels, perhaps filled with scented water, were shaken to perfume the air in homes or in shrines during religious festivals. Its elegant simplicity of line is as pleasing to the modern eye as it no doubt was to the classical world that created it. As we hold it in our hands today, we are aware of the touch of other hands long ago, we shake the vessel gently, but it is filled only with the melancholy perfume of a vanished world.
Antiquities Ancient Roman
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