FIRING THE VASES
1-10 Votive tablets or pinakes found at Penteskuphia near Corinth, dating 650-550 B.C. (figs. [72-80]). Nos. 73-78, 80 are in the Berlin Museum; Nos. 72, 79 in the Museum of the Louvre.
Antike Denkmäler, I, 1886, pl. 8, Nos. 1, 4, 12, 15, 19b, 21, 22, 26 (Furtwängler, Beschreibung der Vasensammlung zu Berlin, I, Nos. 608, 802, 616, 893, 909, 827, 611). Gazette archéologique, VI, 1880, p. 105 (1), p. 106 (1).
Figs. 72-73. Potters stoking the fire
Antike Denkmäler, I, pl. 8, 26.
Gazette archéologique, VI, p. 105.
Representations of potter’s kilns.
The kilns are domed, and have three openings, one at the bottom for the fuel, one on the side for the insertion of the ware and to act as a spy-hole, and one at the top to let out the smoke and for the regulation of the draught. On figs. [72-79], the firemen are busy stoking the fire, and climbing to the top of the kiln to manipulate the draught-hole with a hooked implement; for the flames are seen emerging at the top, which means that heat is being wasted. Fig. [80] shows the inside of a kiln, in horizontal section, with two openings for the fire, each opening having two channels into the kiln. The vases should of course stand upright, but the painter naturally found it difficult to depict them in the right perspective looking at them from the top.