Earthen Vases known by the Name of Etruscan. 59 
over, was irreparable. Although a wonderful steadiness and 
sureness of hand is manifest in the paintings of vases, yet ble- 
mishes produced by haste are not unfrequentJy seen. 
We are, in the third, place, to treat more especially of the ope- 
rations required, after the application of the paints for finishing 
the paintings. 
We have shown above, that it is probable vases have not, af- 
ter being first covered with a coating of varnish and other pig- 
ments, been again baked, like Gur modern glazed earthen-ware. 
Consequently, no further operations were necessary for finishing 
them. In some vases, however, engraved delineations occur, 
which penetrate through the black varnish, and present the clay- 
colour of the base; in others, similar lines are seen, which pass 
through the pigments laid upon the black varnish, and lay the 
latter bare. These ornaments, which are of rare occurrence, 
could only have been produced, after the pigments had been ap- 
plied, by means cff a sharp stile. 
In some vases, there occur letters either painted or cut out 
with a sharp instrument, which either exhibit the name of 
the painter, or notify the object of the painting. 
The painted letters have been done in various ways *. 1. In 
the most ancient vases they are black, upon a red ground. 52. In 
more recent ones, the ground on which they are laid is some- 
times white or red ; or, 3., In the same manner as the figures, 
they are circumscribed by a black ground, and have the colour 
of burnt clay. The engraved letters upon some of the more an- 
cient vases are found either in the red ground, or in the black 
varnish. 
6. Of the Composition of those Vases which are entire- 
ly Black. — Among the antique vases dug up in Lower Italy, 
as well as in the districts of ancient Etruria, there occur some 
which have a black colour not only on the surface, but even in- 
ternally, concerning the nature of which I have already spoken. 
In these vases, the fracture of the mass is earthy, and of a pure 
black colour. On minute inspection, not only black particles 
with a pitchy lustre, but also sometimes argillaceous ones, of a 
JoriO) loc. cit., p. 16 . 
