Fig. 88. Tools found at Arezzo
Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, p. 1122, fig. 3036
In the British Museum (Nos. 74.7-10,302) are terracotta stilts used for supporting vases in the kilns, very like the stilts used by potters today. It is unlikely that they were used by the Athenian potters, since the Greek black glaze is so thin it would not be apt to run, but for the Roman ware with metallic glaze they were essential, and the marks they left are visible on the feet of the vases.[60] On one of the British Museum stilts (fig. [89]) are remains of a greenish glaze from such a vase. No moulds for the Athenian plastic ware have to my knowledge been found. But moulds for the later wares, such as the Arretine, are of course plentiful. They are invariably made of burnt clay. The kilns which have survived all date from Roman times (cf. Blümner, op. cit., II, pp. 23 ff.).
Fig. 89. Stilt
III. REFERENCES TO THE POTTERY CRAFT IN ANCIENT LITERATURE
The information derived from ancient literature on the subject of the technique of Athenian vases is decidedly meagre; and naturally so. The only people who could have given us valuable data regarding technical questions were the potters themselves, and they were not writers. Outsiders knew as little of the technique of the craft as they do today. So we obtain from them only general remarks; and these on the whole bear out the points we have already made. Occasionally, however, they throw fresh light on a question, or give us information on some point on which the vases themselves cannot speak, such as the status of the ancient potters, the value placed on the vases, etc. It is important, therefore, to examine the chief references in Greek and Roman literature on this subject.