Samian ware

American  

noun

1. a red-glazed terracotta pottery produced in Gaul and the Moselle Valley a.d. 100–300 and copied from Arretine ware.

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Samian ware British  

noun

1. a fine earthenware pottery, reddish-brown or black in colour, found in large quantities on Roman sites

2. Also called: Arretine ware.  the earlier pottery from which this developed, an imitation of a type of Greek pottery, made during the first century _bc at Arretium

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Etymology

Origin of Samian ware

First recorded in 1835–45; after classical references to a type of pottery produced at Samos, perhaps an imitation of the red-glazed ware produced in Gaul and Italy

Example Sentences

Some fragments of Samian ware, coins, and a bronze and silver metal vessel have been found in Bossens, a camp in St Erth, and the head of an ensign at St Just.

From Cornwall by Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)

Bass, for instance, whose red pyramid to-day stamps authenticity on many a bottle, was in ancient times a well-known potter's name on the beautiful red Samian ware of the Romans.

From Surnames as a Science by Ferguson, Robert

I found the pottery, and picked out fragments of Samian ware; the bank is from three to nine feet deep in them.

From In Troubadour-Land A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc by Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)

Roman lamps, tear vessels, and fragments of sacrificial vessels of Samian ware were met with chiefly towards the Cheapside corner of the churchyard.

From Old and New London Volume I by Thornbury, Walter

Sometime, however, Theo, you should go to one of our museums and see some Samian ware, the finest of Roman clay work.

From The Story of Porcelain by Bassett, Sara Ware