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Earthen Vases known by the name of Etruscan. 
been fabricated by a more complex and artificial method ; for 
example, no seams, which it is difficult to avoid when moulds 
are used. 
Vases are more or less accurately shaped. The finest kinds, 
turned with the greatest care, and ornamented with paintings, 
are exact in their dimensions, with thin walls, and a smooth 
surface, having no marks of the wheel ; from which it may 
be conjectured, that, after the vases had been formed in the 
wheel, some processes had been adopted for smoothing the sur- 
face, perhaps not unlike those which are applied by our own 
potters to the same purpose. 
It is unnecessary for us to enter in this place upon a full ac- 
count of the particular forms given to these vases, as they have 
been described and delineated with sufficient accuracy, in many 
works on the subject. The variety is not less to be admired 
than the elegance of the forms, although in this respect also 
some differences are observed between the more exquisite vases 
and those of inferior quality, between the Grecian vases and 
those of Etruscan origin. 
According to their forms, four principal classes of vases may 
be distinguished. — 1 . Vases properly so called. They differ great- 
ly in size and proportion of parts. The mouth is either much 
greater than the diameter of the body, or is of the same size, or 
smaller. In this manner, it is often furnished either with a lid, 
or with a cup or funnel-shaped process. The body is usually 
ovate, or approaching to this form, or bell-shaped, or calyci- 
form: of these principal forms there are, however, innumerable 
varieties. Vases occur either simple, or furnished with handles, 
of which there are two, or three, or sometimes four, and these 
are affixed to the lip, or body, or lower part of the vase. — 2. 
Vases, commonly called Proefericula by the ancients, which are 
usually furnished with a single handle. — 3. Vasa ungnentaria y 
with a long narrow neck. — 4. Paterae or Goblets , which have 
commonly two handles. 
There are certain parts in vases which have not been formed 
along with the body upon the wheel, but have been made sepa- 
rately, and afterwards joined to the body. Of this kind are, 
1. The handles, with which vases and goblets are frequently fur- 
nished ; A prismatic base, instead of the common round 
