Beginning with the first case, 29, 30, the visitor will first remark
three ancient vases or amphorae, and five jugs, from Corfu, aged about
five centuries before our era; and in the same cases, on the third and
fourth shelves, Athenian vases, variously ornamented with geometrical
designs, animals, and birds, in the most ancient style. The next case
also contains vases of the most ancient style, from Athens, including
a fine specimen surmounted by two horses. In cases 33, 34, are further
specimens of the vases of ancient Greece, on some of which red figures
are traced upon a black ground, and on others a red ground is adopted,
with the ornamental figures in black: among the ornaments on those
vases the visitor should notice the cupids represented in blue and
white on one of these vases, and on another the figure of a crawling
boy, with a low stool and an apple before him. The vases in the next
cases (35, 36) contain some fine specimens of Athenian art about the
time of Pericles, with figures traced red and black, representing
Orestes and Electra at the tomb of Agamemnon. In these cases also are
some Athenian glass vases, and opaque glass vessels from Melos;
terra-cotta bas-reliefs, representing Bellerophon destroying the
Chimera; Perseus destroying the gorgon Medusa, and other classical
subjects; and upon the third shelf, amid unguent boxes, terra-cotta
lamps, and a terra-cotta doll, is a curious vase containing bones,
with a silver Athenian coin, attached to the jar by careful relatives,
to pay for the deceased's transit across the Styx. A collection of
terra-cotta figures are arranged upon the four shelves of case 37.
These include an ancient comic actor as Hercules; Athenian ladies
bearing water jugs, called Hydriophorae; Ceres; a dancing group from
Athens; animals; stools; and dancing figures from the south of Italy.
No less than three hundred and thirty-three handles from the wine
vessels or amphorae of ancient Rhodes are deposited in cases 38, 39.