Wedgwood's red figure, or 'encaustic' decoration on black basalt stoneware was inspired directly by Recueil d'antiquités Egyptiennes, Etrusques, Grecques, Romaines et Gauloises, by Anne-Calude-Philippe, comte de Caylus, which was published in Paris, in seven volumes between 1752 and 1767, and Antiquités Etrusques, Greques et Romaines, a four volume catalogue of Sir William Hamilton's (1730-1803) celebrated collection of ancient Greek and Italian vases, complied by Hamilton and Pierre d'Hancarville and published in 1766-7. The form of the present vase is copied from a 4th century BC Apulian vase from the collection of Sir William Hamilton. For a Wedgwood encaustic-decorated basalt vase of 'volute-krater' form see Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, London, 1989, Vol. I, p. 423, pl. 601.