(1) Inscriptions incised by the maker before the final baking. These are found on the handles and feet, round the edge of a design, or interspersed therewith like the painted inscriptions. Generally they represent the signature of the potter, as in the case of the early Boeotian vase signed by Gamedes,[[2064]] the vases of the fifth-century artist Hieron,[[2065]] and those of Assteas, Python, and Lasimos in Southern Italy.[[2066]] On the vases of the latter class explanatory inscriptions seldom occur, but when they do (as on the vases of Assteas) they are always incised. Of their palaeographical peculiarities we will speak later. On a vase in the South Kensington Museum[[2067]] the words Βραχᾶς καλός are incised and painted red, and on the pottery found on the site of the Kabeirion at Thebes the same process is often adopted, except that the paint used is white.[[2068]]
(2) Of inscriptions scratched under the foot a considerable number remain, especially on B.F. vases. They are often difficult to decipher, being in the form of monograms, and frequently appear to be meaningless. In many cases they may have been private marks of the potter or his workmen; others, again, are evidently private memoranda made by the workman, relating to the number of forms of vases in his batch, or by the merchant respecting the price to be paid. Commonly they take the form of names of vases,[[2069]] such as
for ὑδρία (hydria),
or
for λήκυθος (lekythos),
for σκύφος (skyphos),[[2070]] and so on. Many of the inscriptions give the words in full, with numbers and prices, and we may obtain from them some curious information.