[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Egyptian Red-polished Terra-cotta Bottle. (British Mus.)]
Decoration of a simple kind is occasionally found on both domestic and sepulchral vessels. Colored bands were the usual ornament, and very rarely the entire body was painted with a ground color upon which bands were laid, and the whole was then varnished. It is rarely that a leaf or lotus flower is found. The use of varnish points to a step in advance. It has not yet been determined whether it is really varnish or a glaze applied by firing, but in either case it is found upon the finer and harder kinds of ware. The body color is black, brown, or red, of different shades (Fig. 36). To this class belong the single and double cruses, generally of pale red paste, but sometimes black, used apparently for holding oil or ointment. The best examples of polished ware are red. They show both ornamentation of a higher order and more artistic shapes than the others. The shape of one of these vases resembles the goddess Isis suckling Horus, in the attitude previously mentioned; another is in the form of a woman playing upon a stringed instrument (Fig. 37); a third is shaped like a fish; and many domestic vessels, cups, jugs, and vases are of the same material.
The Græco-Egyptian pottery forms a distinct class, differing in paste, color, and decoration. The outside shows varying shades of gray and red, and the ornamentation consists of lines and animal and floral forms, in colors capable of standing the kiln. At the same period was introduced the custom of making writing tablets of this ware.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.--Glazed Pottery Vase. Egyptian.]
[Illustration: Fig. 39.--Egyptian Scarabæi used as Signets. Average, ¾ inch in length. Pale and dark green. (Way Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 40.--Egyptian Pectoral Tablets. (Way Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]