Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 99. (Budapest, 2003)

DÁGI, MARIANNA: 'Tinkers' and 'Patchers': Some Notes on the Ancient Repairs of Greek Vases

8. Egyptian storage jar with the remains of a modern repair. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts can it be stated that a drill hole found near a fracture of an Antique vase always indicates an ancient repair? We can see relatively even fractures - one with file traces - with only one drill hole on three objects: a fragment of a Little Master cup from the 530s BC (no. 7), a black-figure lekythos (?) fragment with the figure of Geryoneus (no. 6) and an Attic red-figure krater fragment with the figure of Artemis from 450-440 BC. The Little Master cup fragment has the drill hole in the middle, far away from the fractures, closer to the intact rim: therefore it cannot point to repair. In case of the krater-fragment the hole was drilled right under the upper fracture from the exterior and ends up on the broken surface: therefore it could not have been used for repairing. The drill hole of the lekythos (?) fragment is placed more or less in the middle. With regard to the shape and size of the sherd, this hole would not hold the fragment safely. Consequently, we can conclude more recent use in these cases: the owner might have fixed the fragments upon something and thus drilled them.