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
a similar problem. It contained a repaired Attic black-painted kylix along with intact and painted Attic pottery and bucchero vases. 57 It may allow us to make the suggestion that a repair was not an aesthetic necessity, or that the evidence of a repair on a pot does not necessarily suggest that the object was considered important for monetary reasons. Besides particular aesthetic reasons and practical value (e. g. in the case of plain kitchenware and containers), we may think of its particular importance to the owner as well. In comparison with the other repaired items of pottery the great number of repaired black- and red-figure vases may be misleading with regard to the custom of vase repairing. Repaired vessels are known not only from the 6 th and 5 th centuries BC. According to archaeological finds, this custom was known from the Neolithic onwards: only its incidence would have changed over periods in Antiquity. 58 The methods of repairing, and the technique of making drill holes and clamping, remained constant through millennia. From the archaeological context, the repaired pots make it clear that this custom cannot be isolated to certain areas. The statistics show so far that the Attic black- and red-figure vases dated to the 6 th and 5 th centuries BC were repaired in the greatest number and many have an Etrurian provenance, but that does not prove that repairing was more widespread in Etruria than anywhere else. Generally speaking it is most probable that the rare and/or expensive imports were esteemed more highly than local ware, and was treasured even if the quality was somewhat inferior. 59 Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that we presently know no Corinthian pottery with traces of repairing, 60 while there are three repaired examples in the Etrusco-Corinthian corpus. 61 The relatively low number of EtruscoCorinthian examples can be understood in the light of the local ware produced in bulk and easily accessible, but it is strange that no repaired Corinthian vase should be listed, despite its huge number and popularity all over the Mediterranean. It is also an unanswered question whether professional craftsmen existed for mending vases in Antiquity. There are some epigraphic data on objects repaired with lead, but we do not know any Antique source informing us about the vase repair techniques and menders. 62 The equipment necessary for mending pottery 57 See Moretti, M., Tomba Martini Marescotti, Milano 1966. 58 Some examples: Hampe - Winter 1965, 238, 60f. 59 Good examples are the aforementioned black-painted cup from the Martini-Marescotti tomb or the black-painted kylix with punched golden sheet from the tumulus near Kleinaspergle (n. 36). 60 Neither H. Payne nor D.A. Amyx reports any traces of vase repair in connection with Corinthian pottery. 61 Szilágyi, J.Gy., Ceramica etrusco-corinzia figurata II, 556, n. 53; 550, no. 1. plate, Gruppo dei Leoni Affrontati; 486, no. 1. amphora, Poggio Gallinaro Painter; 489, no. 13. omphalos phiale. 62 D.A. Amyx has found the adjective fioXvßSoSeToc ('repaired with lead') in two passages of Greek sources only. Pollux's Onomastikon gives one example, listing the forms of kitchenware, where he uses the phrase [AoAvßSoSeToi éo^ápai (Pollux VI 88). A brazier from Olynthus illustrates this passage well. See Robinson 1950, 411-412, no. 1023, fig. 247. The other is found on an Attic stele as [u]vxn ypv fioXvßooöETOC. For both, see Amyx, op.cit. (n. 40) 208-211, n. 73, and 229-231, n. 101.
