produced were sometimes decorated, sometimes undecorated. The decorated vases of Arezzo of the best period are of great beauty, remarkable not only for the colour of the paste and the regularity of the glaze, but also for the reliefs adorning them, which are conceived and executed with a high degree of artistic delicacy. They were formed in moulds, and the decoration was produced in the following manner. The potter had his stock of punches, representing various designs—garlands, figures, masks, and decorative borders. These were impressed on the inside of the mould, which was then burnt and ready for use. The sides of the vase moulded in it took the designs in relief, and, shrinking in the baking process, could be easily withdrawn without damage. To the body of the vessel, after it had been taken from the mould, there was added the foot, and, in the chalice form, which was common at Arezzo, also the rim and the decorated handles. The names of the potters were stamped on the outside of the vases across the ornament.
The products of these Arretine potteries found their way to Spain and to Africa. They are of common occurrence in the cities of Southern Gaul-at Nimes, at Narbonne, at Mont Beuvray. North of the Rhine they appear in the early fort of Haltern, but with the exception of the goods of the potter Ateius, little Arretine ware seems to have reached Germany, the Danubian country, or Britain. The potter Ateius appears to have flourished about the reign of Augustus, and to have exported his wares very widely, not only to other parts of Italy and to Southern Gaul, but even as far as Egypt and the banks of the Rhine. Although vessels bearing his name have been discovered at Arezzo and other places in Etruria, the exact site of his workshop is still doubtful. It has been suggested that he had a manufactory in Southern Gaul as well as in Italy. In any case he is of special interest for students of ceramics, because his decorated vases, which are somewhat few in number, and which from their form of ornamentation are connected with the products of Arezzo, belong to the period of transition which comes between the decadence of the Italian potteries and the rise of those established in Gaul.
In the first century of our era there were in operation in Gaul a number of potteries in which the influence of Italian models may be clearly discerned. One group produced light-coloured white and yellow wares, specimens of which are very seldom found further north. The other, a much more numerous group, produced red wares which appear to be directly modelled upon the pottery of Arezzo. Two districts have been identified as the chief
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