Greek

The Greek antiquities make up the main part of the museum’s collection. They have come from a range of donations, purchases and bequests.  When Percy Ure first came to Reading in 1911 he brought with him a small selection of Greek pottery sherds and small vases. He recognised the importance of students having access to actual objects from the cultures they were studying and wanted ‘to give life and variety to the study of Greek History’, according to his wife, Annie Dunman (Hunt) Ure. Through their time at Reading, both Percy and Annie Ure actively set about collecting Greek pottery that was representative of the different types of pottery manufacture and in this they have succeeded, so that the Ure is one of the largest and comprehensive collections in the UK.

Some of the most notable items in the Greek collection include:

• Attic and Boeotian pottery from the Lake Copais region (26.12.1-34, 29.11.1-13, 34.10.1-27) from the collection of Julia Katherine Steele and her sister Anne Mary Wickes
• A large Attic black-figure hydria (28.9.1) showing a hunting scene purchased with a grant from the Friends of the University
• An Etruscan black figure amphora (47.6.1) featuring the Trojan prince Troilos, attributed to the Tityos Painter
• An Attic red-figure oinochoe (51.7.1), attributed to the Hasselmann Painter
• A Euboean Eretrean black figure lekanis (56.8.8), purchased with a grant from the Friends of the University

Other important Greek artefacts include:

• Lead figurines and other votives emerging from the British School at Athens’ excavations at Sparta
• The Reading aulos, seemingly half of a double aulos (67.7.3)