Two more additions to the fine CVA fascicules of the Berlin collections, with their elegant pale coffee-coloured boards and high-definition plates. The collections are large enough to allow for volumes which concentrate on specific shapes and techniques: M.'s volume follows up on her two previous fascicules of Attic black figure, 45 and 61, to give us the star amphorae of the collection in very high-definition, near-matte monochrome plates of admirable clarity, and a small section of colour plates. Z.-E.'s exploration of Attic red-figure shoulder-lekythoi follows her fascicule 89, on the white-ground lekythoi, shown as these are, in high-quality colour plates. Both volumes benefit from the fine work of the photographer J. Laurentius.

Both fascicules, like earlier ones, record items which have migrated on long loan, or permanently, or were lost in the Second World War. Many of the lost ones do have a visual record, and these appear in both volumes in a Beilage section. Z.-E. provides a history of the origins of the lekythos collection in her foreword: the earliest ones arrived in 1827, and were supplemented from private collections, purchase and gifts throughout the nineteenth century, including contributions by Gerhard in 1845, and Hartwig in 1895. Unsurprisingly, the amphorae emerged in much the same way and from similar sources. Both fascicules provide cross-references to Furtwängler's 1885 inventory. As other recent Berlin fascicules do, both volumes fulfil the now standard expectation that a CVA volume will reflect the history of a collection as much as its current state.

Fascicule 93 follows the collection history with an essay on the vase-shape, its development and images, using examples which appear in the volume. This prepares the ground for an extensive group of commentaries in the individual entries, arranged chronologically: each vessel is very fully documented and referenced, as is the hand or group to which it is attributed, and there are inset drawings which give details of inscriptions where they appear. Further support appears in the section of profile drawings, and there are comprehensive indexes on subject matter, find-spots, previous collections, size and weight, technical details, workshops.

The series of lekythoi begins with an example by the Brygos Painter, which isolates an elegant picture of Menelaus recovering Helen on its front surface. Helen is slightly taller than Menelaus, and close-ups on two plates show us that he is looking down at her breasts, defined under her pleated chiton; she looks towards his helmet. Among the earlier examples in this rich assemblage, gods and heroes follow. An authoritative solo Dionysus, by the Berlin Painter, gestures with his kantharos, his thyrsus echoing the verticals of his clothing. Heracles' encounter with Peirithoos in the Underworld, by the Alkhimachos Painter, centres on a handclasp at the centre of the diagonal formed by the arms of the seated Peirithoos and a Heracles who tries to move away; details show us faces, and the glances lock.

It might be fair to say that the earlier examples tend to show us the more controlled graphics and planned relationships between the image and the shape. The spread of subject matter broadens to include rarer myths and more female and domestic images, and a mother with her child in his high chair follows Eos and Tithonus and precedes a woman filling a hydria. Smaller lekythoi show us, among other things, a double-flute player at an altar, Athene's owl, harpies, Leto holding a baby Apollo already equipped with a bow, and dolphin riders. And there is a fascinating scene showing Leda beside an altar which supports an infant Helen knocking on the inner wall of her egg-shell.

M.'s equally substantial volume gives us a conspectus of a rich group of black-figure neck-amphorae conventionally attributed to many of the key names, from the Amasis Painter to the Leagros Group, and perhaps more controversially and relatively recently the Kleophrades Painter; a small example by the Three-line Group appears towards the end. A fascinating, and sad Kriegsverluste section showing belly and neck-amphorae includes an example from Group E with a lip-frieze attributed to an apprentice Exekias, an item close to Lydos, more work by the Amasis Painter, the Tyrrhenian Group, and the early amphora by Exekias showing a woman probably receiving Ajax carrying Achilles' body, and a hoplite departure scene.

Four colour plates show examples of developing compositions and image and shape associations, from a piece attributed to the Botkin Class showing Heracles both throttling the Lion and wielding a sword to plaudits from an admiring fan-club, via Lydos' version of the murders of Priam and Astyanax, a musical procession on the name-vase of the Painter of Berlin 1686, Exekias' image of Demophon and Akamas with their horses Phalius and Kalliphora, to Amazon fights on two relatively late vases, finishing with the Antimenes Painter's encounter between Heracles and Andromache, which makes striking use of added white accents. A look back at the plate which shows us the other side of this one gives us the sublime image of Heracles preparing to dump the boar, nose first, on a potted and pleading Eurystheus. A second version, also by the Antimenes Painter, has the boar bottom first, and an even more distressed Eurystheus. The other side shows an olive harvest, with a central tree beaten for its dropping fruit, collected in a basket below. The Acheloos Painter's name vase shows us Heracles immobilising the galloping gesturing river god by grabbing his horns, watched by a sceptical Hermes. The departure scene which forms the B side is very quiet by comparison.

This collection has many stars, all of which receive very detailed treatment in both textual entries and the admirably sharp plates. Details appear of patterns under handles, animal friezes, key figures in narrative scenes and, towards the end of the monochrome plates, lids and graffiti. As in the lekythos fascicule, there are profile drawings, and full indexes of find-spots, previous collections, technical details and restorations, workshops and subjects, comparative material largely used in the section on lost vases, and on inscriptions, many of which also appear as inset drawings in the text.

Both these fascicules represent a serious and committed approach to the documentation of the Berlin collections which continues a long tradition of CVA volumes, and more than live up to our expectations of the series.