Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/642

Rh 618 POTTERY [ROMAN. Plain biscuit. Pottery with reliefs in slip. Murviedro). It was also produced in France and Ger many, and the discovery of a Samian bowl -mould at York makes it appear probable * that it was made Y! in Britain, where * great quantities of it have been found. This ware is of great beauty, both in colour and in its delicate surface reliefs ; it is the most artistic sort FIG. 40. Bowl of Samian ware, with moulded patterns in slight relief. of pottery that the Romans produced. It appears to have been highly valued, as many Samian bowls have been found carefully mended with bronze or lead rivets. In addition to the moulded ware many vessels of the same class were made plain from the wheel ; others have a peculiar scale ornament in relief applied by the potter s thumb, a form of decoration common in other varieties of Roman pottery. 2. Plain Biscuit Pottery is made of simple unglazed clay, without decoration, of a soft body and quite porous. The clay is mostly composed thus : silica 48-G9 per cent., alumina 10-22, oxide of iron 8-13, lime H-18 per cent., but it, of course, varies according to the locality where the pottery was made. Fig. 41 shows some of the forms of FIG. 41. Typical shapes of common Roman biscuit pottery. this simple ware. It was specially used for amphorae, often nearly 2 feet high, sepulchral urns, and vessels for common domestic use. The forms are mostly graceful and natural. The clay is of many colours, including all shades of red, grey, brown, yellow, and (rarely) almost pure white. Some of this }&amp;gt;ottery has the grain which had been pro duced by the wheel carefully smoothed out by a tool or the potter s hand, or in some cases by dipping the piece into a bath of thin fluid slip, but it is more commonly left without any attempt at smoothness or high finish. 3. Pottery with Beliefs applied in Slip. This is a very remarkable kind of decoration, in which great skill was shown by the Roman potters. The slip, finely -ground clay, was mixed with water to about the consistency of very thick cream, and was allowed to run slowly or drop off a wooden point or flat spatula upon the outside of ordinary wheel-made pottery. Very spirited figures of animals (see fig. 42) hares pur sued by dogs, lions, goats, horses, deer, or even complicated sub jects with human figures such as gladiators combats and a great variety of graceful scroll -orna ments of vine, ivy, or convolvulus were produced in this way with wonderful ingenuity. Both the outline and the modelling were given with curious precision by the quantity of semi-fluid slip FIG. 42. Roman cup, with which was allowed to flow off the reliefs of a stag pursued by a tool. The body, e.g., of a dog ** A &amp;gt; execilted hl semi-fluid would be poured off a sort of small palette-knife, and its thinner legs formed by trailing along a point dipped in the slip. Tools for this purpose have been found near Roman kilns. One of the most elaborate specimens of this kind of pottery is a cup in the Colchester Museum, covered with reliefs of chariot -races and gladiators combats, done with great vigour and even minuteness of detail considering the difficulties of the process. In some cases, especially when the designs are simple scroll or geometrical ornaments, additional effect is produced by the use of a slip coloured differently from the body of the pot. Frequently the relief-patterns are white, made of pipeclay, applied to a red or dark coloured vessel. The vessels with this class of decoration are mostly small bowls, cups, or bottle-like vases. Some few are made of the Samian ware, but more commonly they are grey or blackish with body and slip both of the same clay. A great deal of coarse Roman pottery is rudely decorated with a thin slip of red, white, or yellow clay, put on with a brush in coarse bands or scroll-patterns. The slip in this case is treated as a pigment of the sim plest kind, and does not stand out in relief. With this trifling exception, nothing in the form of painted vases was produced by the potters of Roman times. 4. Black Pottery is usually made from a very silicious or Bla&amp;lt; sandy clay, composed thus (average of several analyses) war silica 76 parts, alumina 10, oxide of iron 9, lime 2. It owes its black colour and rather metallic gloss to the direct contact of smoke in a close or smother kiln. If heated in an open fire it burns out usually to a greyish white. A great deal of this ware belongs also to class 3, as it is frequently decorated with simple patterns in white slip ; the presence of the white clay on the black body implies a second firing, free from the contact of smoke, and not high enough in temperature to burn the black out of the body of the pot. This ware was largely made at many places in Germany along the Rhine, in France, and especially at Castor in Northamptonshire, where remains of many Roman kilns have been found. It varies very much in shape and in method of decoration. Some of the numerous specimens from Bonn and Rhein- zabern are treated in a manner different from the British varieties. A few are coated with a black similar to that used by the Greeks, but very thin and poor in quality. Others have a mechanical polish applied after firing, whilst the pot was again set on the wheel, by rubbing it with black lead, occasionally applied in bands of alternately dull and bright black all round the pot. A fine specimen from Coblentz, now in the Sevres Museum, has a curious com bination of stamped work and reliefs formed in fluid slip. The design represents a lion running through vine-branches. The body of the lion and the grapes are stamped from a mould, the rest being done in slip. Cups and small jars of this ware are frequently modelled into strange shapes by