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Identifying Greek painted pottery

Black-figure, red-figure, and the glossy slip that defines them.

Greek fine pottery divides famously: black-figure (dark silhouetted figures with incised detail on the orange clay ground, 7th–5th century BC) and red-figure (the reverse — figures reserved in orange against a painted black ground, from about 530 BC). The 'glaze' is actually a refined slip fired to a metallic sheen.

Even small sherds show the technique: look for incision lines through black paint (black-figure) versus fine painted brush lines within reserved figures (red-figure). Shapes — amphora, kylix, lekythos — follow well-published forms, and South Italian workshops continued the tradition with their own flourishes.

The market in fakes and the trade in looted pieces are both serious here: document provenance scrupulously and be wary of unprovenanced 'Greek vases'. For sherds, photograph both faces, record fabric colour and any added white or purple, and let specialists refine the attribution.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on pottery

Identifying pottery and ceramics — Fabric, surface, and how it was formed.

Identifying terracotta figurines — Mould lines and vent holes.

Identifying amphorae and transport pottery — Shape equals cargo.

Identifying tiles and brick — Fabric, stamp, and format.

Identifying Roman samian ware — Glossy red tableware with moulded scenes and potters' stamps.

Identifying Roman coarse wares — The kitchen pottery of the empire — greywares, mortaria, and flagons.

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