Ancient Roman potters did not develop a vase-painting tradition equivalent to the Greeks and Etruscans. Roman pottery vessels were utilitarian, ubiquitous and inevitably evolved within a wider context. Indicative of Roman industry, trade and everyday culture, Roman domestic pottery vessels can be categorised as coarse wares and fine wares. We will take a "potted" look at a few types of fine ware that would have graced a Roman table, and which may be of interest to collectors of antiquities.

The diverse peoples of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica developed complex civilisations and cultures with all the associated high achievements, including in art. One of the common features of Mesoamerican art is the focus on the human experience and image. With this in mind, we dip our toes into the Preclassic and Classic periods of this vast, rich and varied group of cultures to look at a few types of figurine, some of which are available to the modern collector of ancient artifacts.

Ancient Greek pottery is popular with collectors. We introduce here the timeline, categories and terminology of interest to the beginner.