Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/301

 INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 28; accord with those with which the country was familiar. One would be tempted, however, to exclude from coins of this kind that with a lion's head (Fig. 190), where details are imbued with a certain degree of heaviness and exaggeration, that remind one of the workmanship of the Phrygian necropolis (Figs. 64, 120). INDUSTRIAL ARTS. The capital potter's clay that made the fortune of the Lydian bricks was equally fitted to taking any form the potter at his wheel chose to impress upon it. Ceramic industry, to take the word in its widest sense, seems to have been very flourishing in Lydia. Certain types of drinking-cups were said to be of Lydian invention. 1 The fragments of vases collected by Spiegelthal in the mortuary chamber of Alyattes, including remains of flasks in Oriental alabaster, do not belong to the high-class objects above mentioned, but to the common everyday earthenware (Fig. 193). Nevertheless, not one of these pieces, even the plainest without a trace of ornament (Figs. 194, 195), but testifies to advanced technique. The paste, when broken, is light red and of very fine texture ; it has been well potted, and so nicely turned on the wheel as to have yielded a contour of the utmost regularity. 2 Parallel bands running round the body are the sole decoration of the most carefully fashioned vases (Fig. 196). On another fragment, dots arranged in circles appear between the bands (Fig. 198) ; whilst concentric circles are exhibited inside the bowls (Fig. 199). A drinking cup, of which only a tantalizing small piece remains, was furnished with a handle whose design and attachment were not void of elegance (Fig. 197). Variety, whether of tone or designs, is sadly to seek. The ornamentist used little more than whites or yellow ochres or both combined, of varying depth, which he opposed to dull browns. Precisely similar in character are a 1 Critias, cited by Athenaeus, x. p. 432, D. It is regrettable that the passage should have been tampered with. 2 VON OLFERS, Ueber die Lydischen Kcenigsgracber bei Sanies, pp. 549, 550. FIG. 193. Alabas- tron. Third of actual size. Von Olfers, Plate V. Fig. 10.