Pottery is the one industry in ancient Athens of which we have some detailed knowledge. In this book, originally published in 1972, Professor Webster examines the workshops, the painted pots and their purchasers over the period 600–400 B.C.
The first chapter assembles the evidence for the size and organization of the industry, which seems to have consisted of a dozen or so family workshops, surviving through several generations and producing, besides painted pottery, black-glaze pottery and lamps, moulded vases and plain ware. In stock vases the relation of the scene, whether from everyday life or mythology, to the shape or use of the vase and the popularity of different scenes and treatments at different times are discussed.
The history of the subjects of painted pottery is also a history of the taste of the purchasers. A considerable number of special commissions can be detected either because the scene is unique or because the names of individuals are attached to figures in stock scenes. Various kinds of evidence for purchase are given in the last chapter, which demonstrates that the majority of vases were equally acceptable for home use, dedication, offering at the tomb or for export, new or second-hand. It is seen that the pace was set by large consumers who might order new vases whenever they gave a symposium, and that those whose names are known were the leading men of Athens.
