Mittheilungen des Museen-Verbandes als Manuscript für die Mitglieder (1935)

intended to imitate the appearance of tortoiseshell. This mottled
glaze has been skilfully ground or chipped away by the forger, so
as to produce the animal design in reserve. The scales of the fishes
and other details have been scratched into the body of the earthen-
ware and then a new lead glaze has been painted over the designs and
fixed by firing; this glaze is of a bright yellow tone quite different
from the amber colour of the original glaze.

Lastly there were several specimens of forgeries from beginning
to end. I have chosen as a sample a bowl (Abb. 3) with a figure of an
armed man in a long striped robe, between two amorphous wing-like



Archiv Nr. 1527. (Abb. 2)

motives and foliated scrolls. Here the slip coating has been cut
away so that the red earthenware gives a background to the design;
the glaze is yellowish cream-colour and the body of the ware a red
verging on salmon colour. The bad drawing and the aimless cha-
racter of the motives surrounding the figure are enough in my
opinion to show that this bowl is a clumsy modern fabrication.
I believe it to be akin to a large dish with a figure of similar character
reproduced by Talbot Rice, Op. cit. plate XXI (b). It has been
suggested that this dish is of peasant pottery, perhaps of the 18th
century, following old Byzantine Traditions, but I am convinced
that both dish and bowl are quite modern, made expressly for the
antique market, and probably the work of the same forger. It will
be noticed that the bowl is defective and has been made up with
plaster, but these restorations are confined to the rim and care has