the design of a chariot, driven at speed, from which a warrior discharges an arrow in a backward direction. The design seems copied from an Assyrian work of art. No. 8 is a deep cup, representing a class of vases on which are complicated geometric patterns painted in black and purple on a drab ground. Vases in the form of animals and of peculiar shapes are arranged in Case 37. Nos. 9-10 are of shapes which recur at Ialysos.

FIRST VASE ROOM.

In this and the next room is placed the collection of painted Fictile Vases discovered in tombs in Italy, Greece, the adjacent islands, and other parts of the Mediterranean. For the most part these vases are of Greek fabric, though the obsolete name "Etruscan" is still erroneously applied to them in England. Although nearly all of them have been found in tombs, they are very similar in form and fabric to those actually used in the ancient Greek household. The subjects with which these vases are decorated are chiefly derived from the divine or heroic legends of the Greeks, while others seem to be simply scenes from real life.

The Collection in this room is arranged for the most part in chronological order, commencing with the North and East sides of the room. The approximate dates under which the successive classes may be arranged are given on the large labels over the Wall Cases. The finest specimens are placed in or upon the detached Cases.

Class I. Cases 1-12. Table Case B and cruciform Case P. Vases of Archaic style (B.c. 700-B.C. 500).

Cases 1-5. Vases, with patterns perhaps in imitation of wickerwork, chiefly from Athens, Corinth, and Melos.

Cases 6-10. Vases from Kameiros, in Rhodes, with geometrical patterns, or with men and animals, most of which belong to the style known as Græco-Phoenician.

Table Case B. Terracotta coffin and select vases from Kameiros. Cases 11-16. Vases of the Archaic style chiefly from Ialysus in Rhodes. Presented by Professor J. Ruskin. Among the designs on these vases may be noticed the cuttle-fish, and certain other ornaments which are found among the antiquities discovered at Mycena. The shapes of some of these vases also recur at Mycena.

Class II. Cases 17-30. Detached Cases C-H, K, and O. Vases, chiefly from Italy, of the transition period (B.c. 500-B.c. 440), in which greater mastery in drawing the figure is attained and more complicated groups are attempted. The figures are drawn in black, white, and crimson, on a red ground.

The finest specimens of this style are the hydria, or water-jugs (Cases 17-24, Shelves 3, 4), and the amphora in the detached Cases on the East side of the room. The subjects relate chiefly to heroic myths and personages, and especially those of the Homeric poems and Epic Cycle generally.

Case O, on the West side of the room, contains Panathenaic amphora of this class, with inscriptions which show that they were given as prizes in the games at Athens.

Class III. Cases 31-54, and Cases I, L, M, N, Q. Vases of the finest period (B.c. 440-B.C. 330), with red figures on a black ground. They are unrivalled for beauty of shape and drawing, and the lustre of the black varnish. The vases on Table Case I., of the same period, are especially worthy of observation.

Cases 31-36. Vases from Kameiros, Rhodes.

Cases 37-45. Vases, chiefly from Nola, in Campania.

Cases 55-56 contain a number of vases of various styles from Sicily, of which the most remarkable are the lekythi, painted in several colours on a white or cream-coloured ground (Case 55). Cases 57-60 contain Athenian vases, the finest of which are the vases belonging to Class III. (Cases 57-8, Shelf 4), and the lekythi with polychrome figures on a white ground (Cases 59-60). A selection of the finest Athenian lekythi with polychrome figures on a white ground, will be found on Table-cases C, M, E, and Q, and a selection of rhytons on Table Case F.

In the Guide to the First Vase Room, now on sale in this Room, will be found a description of the vases most remarkable either for interest of subject or beauty of style. These select specimens are distinguished in the Collection by blue labels corresponding with the numbers in the Guide.

Over Cases 41-60 are painted fac-similes, by Signor Campanari, of the walls of an Etruscan tomb at Tarquinii, decorated with a double frieze; in the lower are represented dances and entertainments, and in the upper, athletic games, as leaping, running, chariot-racing, hurling the discus, boxing, and the armed course; above is a large vase and two persons at an entertainment. The sides of the entrance of this tomb, decorated with two panthers, are represented above the Cases 31-40, and the roof, which is chequered, over Cases 11-30.

SECOND VASE ROOM.

This room contains the later Greek Fictile Vases, the Greek and Roman Terracottas, the Greek and Roman Mural Paintings, and a number of miscellaneous antiquities. In this Collection a large number of Fictile Vases and other anti

quities from the Blacas, Temple, and Castellani Collections have been incorporated.

The Greek Fictile Vases are arranged in Wall Cases (60-72, 1-23), and in the detached Cases in the centre. A large proportion of the subjects represented relates to Dionysiac festivals, to Venus and Cupid, or to funeral offerings.

The figures are painted in red or white on a black ground, the details being sometimes picked out in crimson or yellow. The black varnish is less brilliant than in the earlier styles, and the shapes of the vases less elegant; the ornaments are more florid, the composition more pretentious and elaborate, and the drawing mannered and often careless. These characteristics mark the decline of the art of vase-painting.

Cases 60-70 contain the black modelled ware, among which will be found many shapes imitated from vases in metal. Among them is a series of vases found at Capua, remarkable for elegance of shape and richness of gilt ornament. Cases 71-2 contain a series of vases from the Cyrenaica.

On the Table Cases in this room are the following select vases and terracottas :

Table Case A. 1. Krater: Death of Priam and meeting of Menelaus and Helen reverse, Olympic Deities, meeting of two heroes, and battle of Greeks and Amazons. (Minervini, Bullettino Archeologico Napolitano, 1858, p. 145.) 2. A terracotta urn from Athens, containing bones. 3. A kernos formed by four vases grouped together on a stand, and ornamented with reliefs.

Table Case B. 1. A collection of terracotta figures found in tombs at Tanagra in Boeotia. They are remarkable for grace and refinement in the composition and modelling.

2. A terracotta group of two female figures playing with astragali or knucklebones. Capua. Castellani.

Table Case C. Two Panathenaic amphora, both inscribed with the name of the Archon Pythodelos (B.c. 336). Cervetri. Castellani. A third, with the name of the Archon Niketes (B.c. 332). Capua. Castellani.

Table Case D. 1. Krater: The initiation of the Dioscuri at the lesser mysteries at Agra; reverse, Dionysos, Plutos, and other figures. -Pourtalès.

2. Krater: Lykurgos slaying his family; reverse, Pelops, Hippodamia, Myrtilos. 3. Krater: Scene in Hades: Orpheus holding Cerberus.-Blacas.

Table Cases E, G. Six Panathenaic amphora, from the Cyrenaica. One of these bears the name of the Athenian archon Euthykritos, (B.c. 328); on another is the name of the archon Nikokrates, (B.c. 333); and

on a third, that of the archon Polyzelos, (B.c. 367). On the obverse of these vases is represented Athenè Promachos, wearing an embroidered peplos, and treated according to an ancient hieratic type. On the reverse, chariot race and other athletic contests. On the centre vase (Table Case G) the group of Harmodios and Aristogeiton is painted on the shield of Athenè. These vases are of great rarity, and are of special interest to the student of art, because their dates can be fixed by the names of the archons inscribed on them.

Table Case F. 1. Select terracottas from the Cyrenaica and Southern Italy.

2. Vase in the form of a helmeted female head.-Vulci.

3. Amphora with moulded reliefs.-Blacas.

Table Case H. 1. Askos, ornamented with Medusa's head, Victories, female figures and horses. Canosa. Castellani.

2. Krater: Ulysses and Diomedes surprising Dolon; a curious example of late grotesque drawing.

Table Case I. 1. Krater: Birth of Pandora; Satyric revels; reverse, Dancing lesson; Satyrs playing at ball.—Apulia.

2. Vase in shape of prow.

3. A select case of terracottas.

Table Case K. 1. Hydria: The carrying off of the Leukippidae, by Castor and Pollux; Herakles in the Garden of the Hesperides.

2. Krater: Battle of Centaurs and Lapithae: toilet of Helen; reverse, Dionysos, Satyrs, and Maenads. (Monumenti of the Roman Institute, 1854, pl. 16.)

3. Hydria: Group of Triptolemos, Demeter, Hekatè, and Plutos. (Monumenti of the Roman Institute, I. pl. 4.)

Table Case L. 1. Amphora: The surprise of Thetis by Peleus; a polychrome painting with some of the details picked out with gold. This picture, remarkable for masterly drawing, is one of the few extant examples where gold has been combined with several colours in fictile art; reverse, Bacchus, Ariadne, a Satyr; a monochrome design. This exquisite specimen of ceramography was found at Kameiros, in Rhodes.

2. Krater: Death of Hippolytos.-Temple.

3. Krater: The hunt of the Calydonian boar.-Pourtalès.

Table Case M. 1. Krater: Taking of Troy; Ajax Oileus seizing Cassandra at the altar of Athenè; reverse, Meeting of two heroes.— Blacas.

2. Krater: Offerings at the tomb of a hero.

3. A vase moulded in the shape of a duck, with reliefs.-Pourtalès. Table Case N. 1. Krater: Sacrifice of Iphigenia.—Pourtalès.

2. Krater: Mourners bringing offerings to a tomb; reverse, Satyrs and Maenads.-Temple.

3. Select terracotta figures of actors.

Table Case O. I. Amphora of black ware, with painted and moulded ornaments.-Temple.

2. Amphora: Meeting of Pelops and Hippodamia at the altar of Zeus.-Ruvo.

3. Vase of glazed ware in the form of a goose.-Tanagra. Cases 24-31 contain some interesting specimens of mural paintings from Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiæ, and Rome. Most of these are from the Temple and Blacas Collections. Among them may be particularly mentioned the head of a youthful flute-player-perhaps Olympus-from a tomb near Rome.-Presented by Sir M. White Ridley.

The Table Cases contain a variety of antiquities, which are arranged as follows:

Table Case A. A collection of objects in lead, including some tablets inscribed with imprecations, found at Knidos, and a number of inscribed sling bolts. In the same case is exhibited an interesting series of objects in amber, some of which are of an Archaic period.

Table Case C. A collection of plates, rhytons, and vases for the toilet, moulded in the form of animals and human figures.

Table Case D. A collection of objects in bone and ivory, such as caskets, gladiatorial tessera, tickets for the theatre, dice; a lyre and two flutes made of sycamore, found in a tomb near Athens, on the road to Eleusis; a flageolet of bone and bronze, found in a tomb at Halicarnassus; fragments of wooden furniture from a tomb at Kertch. Table Case E. An extensive and interesting series of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine weights and steelyards, collected by Mr. Burgon, Mr. Woodhouse of Corfu, and others.

Table Case G. A number of small figures, vases, and other objects, in glass, porcelain, ivory, bone, and other materials, discovered by Mr. Salzmann and Mr. Vice-Consul Biliotti in tombs at Kameiros, in Rhodes. Most of these objects probably belong to the Græco-Phoenician period.

Table Case H. Various small figures in marble, stone, and terracotta, from Kameiros in Rhodes, the Greek islands and mainland, and Sicily. Some of these appear to be Phoenician, others of the GræcoPhoenician period.

Table Case K. Archaic Greek terracotta masks and reliefs from Kameiros, Melos, and Italy.

Table Case L. A collection of terracotta heads and figures from Dali (Idalium) in Cyprus, presented by their discoverer, D. E. Colnaghi, Esq., H. M. Consul, Florence. A series of terracottas ob tained from Centuripae, in Sicily, by Mr. Consul Dennis. Fragments of terracotta figures, some of which are of great beauty, found on the site of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

Table Case M. Terracotta moulds and masks, chiefly from Italy. Table Case O. Lamps, plates, and other vases in moulded black ware. Cases 32-41, at the South end of the room, contain a series of Græco-Roman terracotta reliefs, chiefly from the Towneley Collection. They originally decorated the walls of Roman buildings, and present an interesting variety of mythological subjects. The figures are generally well composed and modelled.

Cases 42, 43, contain several large terracotta figures of the same