The privileged position of Greek ceramics which has evolved during the past couple of centuries is not in harmony with the low status of pots and potters in the ancient literary record. Standards of both shape and decoration were set by silversmiths, but most of their products have gone into the melting pot. When Athenian ceramics of the archaic and classical periods are viewed skeuomorphically (i.e., as evocations of metalwork), one can learn much about the lost world of the worker in precious metals, and begin to reevaluate the common view of the nature of society in ancient Greece.