simpula

Updated: May 21, 2025

The graceful head and neck of the swan formed for many centuries the favourite termination for the handles of simpula, or ladles. The Greeks and Romans adopted it, as they freely did grotesque art in general; and the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibit it in untrammelled style; while many articles of ornament and use were constructed in the most whimsical taste.

F. W. (Frederick William) Fairholt - Rambles of an Archaeologist Among Old Books and in Old Places: Being Papers on Art, in Relation to Archaeology, Painting,: Art-Decoration, and Art-Manufacture