[17] Archaeologists’ accounts are very misleading here, for some even assume that vases are in leather-hard condition after the first firing. (Cf. Herford, Handbook of Greek Vase Painting, p. 12.)
[18] E. Pottier has come to the same conclusion; cf. his Catalogue of the Louvre Vases, III, p. 674.
[19] The clay of Reichhold’s pot, which he says could be dropped on the floor without appreciable damage (Furtwängler und Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, I, p. 152), must have been very tough indeed. Potters I have asked have never encountered clay quite as tough as that. The leather-hard vases I have handled were fit only for the dust bin when they fell on the floor—a not unusual event when learning to turn.
[20] I wish here to acknowledge the great kindness of A. J. B. Wace, director of the British School of Athens, who went to much trouble in sending me this clay. The clay sent is that used by the Athenian potters today. It is a mixed clay, composed of red earth from Chalandri and white earth from Koukouvaones.
[21] Cf. also Nos. 06.1021.114, 07.286.78, 17.230.13 in the Metropolitan Museum, and other instances quoted by Reichhold in Furtwängler u. Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, I, p. 152. If, as Reichhold assumes, the vases were actually placed in the kiln leather hard, they must have been allowed to dry for some days in the kiln before firing; otherwise they would have cracked.
[22] Cf. also Furtwängler u. Reichhold, loc. cit.
[23] This is Mr. Binns’s explanation.
[24] Five are listed by Hartwig, Jahrbuch des deutschen arch. Instituts, XIV, 1899, p. 164, note 21, one in Athens, one in Sèvres, one in Würzburg, one in Berlin, one in Bonn. A sixth piece is a fragmentary kylix in the Metropolitan Museum, No. 11.212.9, and a seventh one, the cover of a toilet box, in the British Museum, Room of Greek and Roman Life, No. 426.
[25] An interesting parallel is furnished by Chinese porcelain for which, Mr. Bosch Reitz tells me, there is clear evidence that it is once fired.
[26] It is sometimes assumed that the accessory colors—purple and white—were not fired and that this is the reason why they are less well preserved and dull instead of shiny like the black glaze. That they were fired is shown by the discoloration of the black glaze beneath the white or purple. They are neither shiny nor durable for the simple reason that they are not a glaze but earth colors.