This elegant askos with hammered body and cast handle (the finials formed as a bird’s and an animal’s head), epitomises the refinements that metalworking attained in Late Hellenistic and Roman times thanks to the wide dissemination of techniques and styles throughout the Mediterranean world. Clay askoi were used in the Aegean and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean already from the 2nd millennium BC as utilitarian vessels for wine, water, aromatic oils and other liquids. Sometime, they took the form of a bird or another animal. However, metal examples were rare until the Hellenistic period, when the wide availability of metals made possible the copying of even the simplest vase forms in bronze, silver and occasionally gold. Metal vases were mainly used as table vessels by the wealthier members of society. Bronze askoi were popular in late Hellenistic and early Roman times in South Italy, particularly the region of Campania, which is the possible provenance of this example. Similar vases have been found at various places in the Mediterranean and are dated to the Roman period, specifically to the 1st c. AD.