Putting Greek Black Glaze pottery into context - Charis Tyndall, Charles Ede gallery, London

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Charis Tyndall, Director at Ancient Art dealership Charles Ede, discusses the latest exhibition on Greek Black Glaze Pottery.

It is held that in the ancient world there were no finer potters than the Greeks, and by 550BC it was the workshops in Athens that surpassed all others in the finesse of the potting and the lustrous quality of the black glaze. Attic black glaze was primarily manufactured from the sixth to fourth centuries and as such was being created alongside the black-figure (c.7th–5th century BC) and the red-figure (c.530–3rd century BC) techniques.
The Greeks began colonising southern Italy as early as the eighth century BC, and by the sixth century BC Attic pottery was being imported to these colonies en masse. The popular Athenian styles were adopted by the local towns and cities, and bat the advent of the fourth century BC their pottery production outnumbered that of the mainland Greek city states. The clay used in these colonies was of a duller hue than that found in Attica, and the glaze often had a less lustrous surface. However, they closely copied many of the forms from Athens and soon began adapting them into a more elaborate style, using added colour to pick out decorative elements and to create more intricate designs.
The manufacturing of these pots comprised a few simple steps. First, local clay was washed and kneaded to remove any air bubbles or lumps it might contain. Next it was ‘thrown’ onto the centre of a hand- or foot-rotated wheel and drawn into the desired shape. Vessels that had a more complicated form could have a separately thrown or hand-moulded neck, foot, or upper/lower bowl that would be merged with the main body, with dilute clay acting as the adhesive. Once the overall form had been created, it was left to bake in the sun. Just before the vessel reached the leather-hard stage it was returned to the wheel, placed upside down, and the underside of the foot was hollowed out. A red wash, also known as miltos, was painted on, followed by the mixture (dilute clay) that would become the black glaze.

Although black glaze is generally accepted as being unembellished, occasionally simple lines of colour were added after firing.
The lustrous black achieved in the glaze of the Athenian pottery was due to a high iron content in the slip. Black glaze vases were fired in three phases. In the first firing, air was added to the kiln, which turned the slip into a red ferric oxide. In the second firing phase the oxygen was reduced and green wood added to the flames, resulting in a black ferrous oxide. The third phase reintroduced oxygen into the kiln, but the black gloss of the slip had sintered and become impermeable so was unable to reabsorb the oxygen and thus kept its colour, whilst the reserved, porous portions of the vase reverted to a red-orange.
It is often thought that the forms themselves originated from metal counterparts - mainly bronze, sometimes silver and very rarely gold. Either way, as technical skills developed it is clear that the materiality of clay allowed for greater experimentation, and many shapes were developed that are yet to have been discovered in metal.
The examples in this catalogue show a good breadth of the tablewares that graced the homes of the ancient greeks. They were part of everyday life, and for many, they were one of the few items of luxury to be on public show within one’s private space.