PLATE X
Porcelain and Enamel-glazed Wares (British Museum).
4, 6, Cypriote Bronze Age; 3, Archaic Greek (Rhodes); 1, 2, 5, Graeco-Roman Period.
In the Hellenistic period, when vase-painting had reached its latest stages, the fashion of glazed enamelled ware was revived; its chief centre was Alexandria, which would naturally have carried on the traditions of Egyptian porcelain or faïence. Specimens of glazed ware with reliefs or modelled in various forms have been found at Naukratis and in the Fayûm, including a fine blue porcelain head of a Ptolemaic queen (Plate [X].). In a tomb at Tanagra were found a beautiful askos in the form of a duck on which Eros rides, and another porcelain vase,[[439]] evidently imported from Alexandria, or some other industrial centre of Hellenised Egypt. Porcelain jugs, inscribed with the names of Arsinoe, Berenike, and one of the Ptolemies, have been found at Benghazi in North Africa, at Alexandria, and at Canosa in Southern Italy.[[440]] They are of blue ware, with reliefs of Greek style attached. Fragments of the same kind dating from the first century B.C. were found at Tarsos in Cilicia,[[441]] and in the Louvre there are glazed wares covered with yellow or green enamel from Smyrna and Kyme. The British Museum possesses similar vases from Kos and elsewhere, with wreaths and similar patterns in relief (Plate [X].), but these are not earlier than the Roman period. Enamelled wares of early Roman date have also been found on the Esquiline, and the ware is common at Pompeii.[[442]]
It does not appear that the manufacture of these enamelled wares was confined to one spot; they are found all over Asia Minor, Italy, and Gaul, and in other countries bordering on the Mediterranean. It seems probable, however, that there were three principal centres of the fabric, at least in the Roman period. The first of these was in Asia Minor, or the islands along its coasts, whence came the specimens found at Tarsos, in Ionia, and in the islands such as Kos. These are mostly small vases, of metallic form, especially in the treatment of the handles (cf. Plate [X., fig. 5]), the colour being usually a bluish green, though some examples are more polychromatic. These seem to have been exported to Italy, and viâ Marseilles to Gaul. Next, there are the wares made at Alexandria, of which the vases described above are examples. And, thirdly, there was a Gaulish fabric, which must probably be located at Lezoux in the Auvergne (see Chapter [XXIII].), examples from which are found at Vichy, in the Rhone Valley, and at Trier and Andernach in Germany.[[443]] Fragments of this ware are even reported to have been found in England—as, for instance, at Ewell in Surrey, at Colchester and Weymouth.[[444]] These are of grey clay with yellow, green, or brown glaze, with ornaments of leaves, vine-branches, or scrolls, stamped in moulds; the shapes are jugs, flasks, or two-handled cups. A later variety is of white clay with a malachite-green glaze, the forms being again of a metallic type, and towards the end of the period imitations of glass with barbotine decoration (see Chapter [XXIII].) appear. These two groups cover the first century after Christ.
Sometimes the ornamentation of the later glazed wares from Italy takes the form of small reliefs (emblemata), made separately and attached before the glaze was applied, and there are two or three specimens of this class in the British Museum. It was also not infrequently used for lamps, which, apart from the glaze, have all the characteristics of the ordinary kinds, and even for figures of gladiators, boats, and other objects. The glaze is of a thick vitreous character, and was not improbably produced by lead; at all events a French writer[[445]] maintains, in opposition to the views of Brongniart and Blümner, that by a study of this ware he has established a knowledge of lead-glaze among the ancients.[[446]]
[300]. Strabo, viii. p. 381 (the expression should probably be confined to vases with reliefs).
[301]. Paus. i. 3, 1; Harpokration, s.v. κεραμεῖς.