Fig. 277.
The ornamental borders which are most commonly met with on Samian ware are elegant festoon-and-tassel borders, and the egg-and-tongue ornament, both of which, as well as a border consisting of a range of figures representing the Medicean Venus, are shown on the accompanying engraving ([fig. 277]) of a fine bowl found in London. Wavy lines and lines of circles are also common, and we frequently meet with scroll-work of very elegant design, commonly formed of leaves, flowers, and fruit. Examples, selected from a numerous variety, are given on engravings (figs. [278] to [282]). These scrolls are generally used to form a border round the upper part of the bowl, as shown on figs. [280] and [281]. The foliage most in favour for these scrolls was that of the vine, and the ivy ([fig. 282]), and also that of the strawberry; the former of which especially shows that this pottery was, as Pliny says of the Samian ware, particularly intended for the service of the table. The ivy-leaf, indeed, is almost the only ornament of the plainer description of this red ware. Sometimes the leaves of the vine are gracefully intermingled with the clusters of the fruit, and with little birds which are feeding upon the latter, as in the fragment represented in our cut ([fig. 283]).
Fig. 278.
Fig. 279.
Fig. 280.
Fig. 281.