THE LOST COLOR GROUP. 107 



sort of compressed or faulted meander. The lower zone is in black except for 

 four groups of radiating bands passing from the lower horizontal band down 

 about half-way to a median point on the bottom. This is a favorite treatment 

 for the lower zone. 



The modeling in figure 180 is much inferior to that of the preceding and the 

 aperture is unusually large for this group of ware. The lip is red and recurved 

 (the pattern seldom encroaches on the lip and never on the inner surface of the 

 aperture). There is a similar framework of horizontal peripheral bands dividing 

 the body into an upper and a lower zone, and of bands tangent to the neck on 

 either side, dividing the upper zone into four panels, two being arched and two 

 upright. The decoration of the upright panels is more felicitous than it was in 

 the colored figure a. In both instances, the endeavor was to break up the broad 

 expanse of black. Here, on the side turned toward the observer, it is very 

 successfully done by a plantlike form with two pairs of lateral fronds. The 

 opposite panel is treated differently. There is once more the faulted meander 

 filling the arched panels. The treatment of the lower zone is characteristic for 

 the group. 



Other examples of vases with solid red ground and linear ornaments are given 

 in Plate XXVIII. The same method of treatment is repeated in figure «, except 

 that the two main panels of the upper zone are quadrangular instead of arched, 

 and the faulted meander is cut in two by a series of vertical bands. The upright 

 panels being narrow are not decorated. The neck is ornamented with vertical 

 bands that encroach on the lip. The frequently emplo3^ed framework of horizontal 

 peripheral bands and others tangent to the neck on two opposing sides is found in 

 figure b. The arched panels thus formed are ornamented in a singularly pleasing, 

 happy-go-lucky fashion. Bands arranged in groups of two or singly meet at various 

 angles and the angular black interstices, when large enough, are marked by one or 

 several spots, some of which are set in small circles or rudely triangular spaces. 

 The lower zone is decorated with eight series of bands in alternating groups of 

 two and three, converging toward the bottom. 



The straight-line or banded motive is continued in figure c, but the effect is 

 wholly different. There is the same separation of the body into two zones by 

 two horizontal peripheral bands. The decoration of the upper zone consists of 

 ten groups of lines or narrow bands (the red, not the black) radiating from the 

 neck and alternating with triangular spaces. The upper part of the lower zone 

 is marked by seven horizontal bands and a single horizontal series of narrow 

 elongated quadrangular panels, each enclosing a single row of spots. The lower 

 part or bottom is left in black, as is also the outer surface of the neck. The ab- 

 sence here of visible fields in black might easily lead one to mistake the black 

 linear interspaces for the real pattern, the radiating triangular spaces in the color 

 of the original ground tending to strengthen the deception ; but the black is 

 never a true delineating color in the lost color group. The polisher used on 

 this vase being rather coarse, the method of using it can be easily detected. The 

 strokes were in straight lines. Those on the upper zone were tangent to the 

 neck and on four sides, the striae on opposite sides being roughly parallel to 

 each other. The striae on the bottom are all in one direction, as if the position 



