The Greek antiquities make up the main part of the museum’s collection, these 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 in the words of Annie Ure ‘to give life and variety to the study of Greek History’. Over the course of his and his wife, Annie Ure’s time at the University of Reading they actively set about collecting Greek pottery that was representative of the different types of pottery manufacture.
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
- a Corinthian “Sam Wide” vase (47.8.1), given by local resident John Fothergill, author of An Innkeeper’s Diary
- 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
- 300 vases on long term loan from Reading Museum (REDMG prefix)