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Tweezers
Greek
Archaic
about 550-530 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Bronze
Dimensions
Overall: 3.3 × 15.7 × 5.5 cm (1 5/16 × 6 3/16 × 2 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by contribution
Accession Number01.7511a-b
CollectionsEurope, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsTools and equipment – Cosmetic and medical
Catalogue Raisonné
Greek, Etruscan, & Roman Bronzes (MFA), no. 626; Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), p. 127 (additional published references).
DescriptionThis is a looped epilation tweezer originally arranged with other instruments on ring. The decoration on one side is incised with a sphinx, eagles, and a panther pursuing a goat and the other incised with a griffin and an animal pursuing another. Because it was found in Cumae, Italy and because of the style of its decoration, it can be safely dated to the Archaic period.
The tweezers are flat and flare at the end. There are numerous uses for tweezers and forceps in the ancient world, which ranged from epilation, surgery, to household tasks like cutting a lamp’s wick.
Loop much corroded, and broken across the top; another break at shoulder of tweezer A. Green patina.
The tweezers are flat and flare at the end. There are numerous uses for tweezers and forceps in the ancient world, which ranged from epilation, surgery, to household tasks like cutting a lamp’s wick.
Loop much corroded, and broken across the top; another break at shoulder of tweezer A. Green patina.
ProvenanceBy date unknown: with Edward Perry Warren (according to Warren's records: Bought in Naples certainly from Cumae.); purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren, December, 1901