cocktail shaker

A vessel in which the ingredients of mixed drinks are combined with ice and shaken violently.
Glass-bodied shakers are best -- metal ones tend to contract with the cold and get stuck closed.
Look for a shaker with a built-in strainer in the top instead of one with a tiny spout. If your drink calls for fresh-squeezed citrus (and if it doesn't, it should!) the pulp will clog a tiny spout.

Cocktail shakers became the focus of American industrial designers about 1920. World War I was over and American wanted to party--but Prohibition sent drinking out of the public eye and into speakeasies and living rooms. So, of course, fancy mixed drinks with exotic names and flavors became symbols of sophistication and style.

Silver makers saw a market and started producing not just shakers, but complete cocktail sets. By the 1930s, other companies were making shakers and sets from less expensive materials, such as glass, chrome, brass, copper, and Bakelite. Often, cocktail shakers have detachable stoppers and stirring spoons.

Kovel, Ralph, and Terry Kovel. "Shaking Fancy Cocktails." KOVELS (On Antiques and Collectibles) JUNE 2004: 111.