vase, vessel of pottery, glass, metal, stone, wood, or synthetic material. The pottery vase was anciently employed as a container for water (a hydria), wine (an amphora), or oil (a lekythus), or for mixing and serving wine and water (a crater). It had one or two handles, sometimes a lip or spout, and frequently a base or foot; sometimes it was pointed to thrust into the ground or was set into a frame holder for support. Large covered vases were used for general storage purposes. The cinerary (cremation) vase, or urn, has been common throughout historical times, a famous one being the Portland vase. Modern vases are widely used for flowers. Beautiful in form and embellished with incised patterns, modeled or painted figures or scenes, and sometimes inscriptions, the vase became a work of art in early times. Greek painted vases are in form and color among the most exquisite examples of ancient art. Vases or their fragments discovered in burial chambers and through excavations in various countries serve as records of the manners, customs, and history of their peoples. Buddhist and Christian altar objects include the vase, usually of silver or gold with chased or modeled designs of exquisite workmanship. Bronze and brass are much employed for vases in Asia, as well as porcelain, carved jade, and crystal in China and enamelware in the Satsuma and Kutani vases of Japan. The vase of cloisonné is also much in evidence in East Asia. The Persian pottery type is famous for its blue-green color, French Sèvres for miniature medallions, English Wedgwood for cameo reliefs, and American Rookwood for rich tones and underglaze painting.

Portland vase, a Roman glass vase, known also as the Barberini vase. It is an unusually fine work of the late Augustan era (early 1st cent. B.C.). About 10 in. (25 cm) high and 22 in. (56 cm) in circumference, it is made of a deep, violet-blue glass overlaid with opaque, white glass into which figures are cut in cameo relief. The mythological scene probably represents Peleus and Thetis accompanied by Poseidon on one side and Aphrodite on the other; on the bottom there is a bust of a young man in a Phrygian cap, possibly Paris. The vase, found in an ancient marble sarcophagus excavated at Monte del Grano near Rome in the pontificate of Urban VIII (1623-44), was placed in the palace of the Barberini family. Sold c.1782, it passed through several hands until acquired by the Duke of Portland. It was lent in 1810 to the British Museum. While on loan it was vandalized and completely shattered (1845) but was so skillfully reconstructed that little trace of the destruction remains. In 1945 it was bought by the British Museum. The vase has been widely reproduced and copied; the most famous replicas were made (c.1789) in jasper ware by Josiah Wedgwood.

Barberini vase: see Portland vase.

Roman vase (1st century AD) of dark-blue glass decorated with white figures, the finest surviving Roman example of cameo glass. It came into the possession of the duke of Portland in the 18th century. The vase has been extensively copied, particularly in the Victorian period. The most accurate copies were made in jasperware with white figures in relief (by Josiah Wedgwood, 1790) and in glass (1876). In 1845, while in the British Museum (where it still resides), the original vase was smashed, necessitating painstaking restoration.

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