The Byzantine Museum's Ceramics Collection contains ca 3,100 objects dating from the Early Christian era to the Post-Byzantine period. Although the bulk of the material is made up of sherds, often of unknown provenance, there are some intact dishes, items of everyday use for the most part.  Quite a few are gifts from individuals, such as the collectors Anthony Benaki and C. Nomikos, Theodore Zoumboulakis, L. Pieridis, Z Zakos and P. Theodorakopoulos, while others come from archaeologists, such as I Threpsiadis and N. Dontas. There are also a large number of artefacts surrendered in recent years by the Ephorates of Byzantine Antiquities (1st, 13th, 23rd and 28th), who gave a large number of the intact ceramics, which were needed for the new displays of the Museum's collections.
   
The  Collection has only a few dozen Early Christian ceramic artefacts, which come for the most part from excavations of Early Christian tombs in the Athens area and elsewhere. They are mostly small oenochoe (wine ladles), lekythoi (small flasks for scented oils), little jars, perfume bottles and lamps.  There are a smaller number of storage vessels – the wide-necked pitharion and amphorae – serving dishes, goblets, small pots and unguentaria (or flasks for holy oils).  Among the Early Christian ceramics a sixth-century serving dish with a sgraffito depiction of Christ in triumph, found in an Early Christian house, stands out, as does a vessel with a spout, which has been thought to be used for milking.
   
The greater part of the Museum's collection is made up of glazed tableware from the Byzantine period.  In this period the ceramicists completely abandoned the simple decoration of the Early Christian artefacts and adopted a variety of decorative motifs which they depicted with paint, in relief and above all using an incised technique.  An interesting group in the Museum are the flat serving dishes and the large twelfth-century goblets with sgraffito decoration.  The items given to the Museum in 1986 by Janet Zakou come from a sunken ship with a cargo of pottery and may be connected with the shipwrecks found in Kastelorizo and in Pelagonniso in the Northern Sporades.  Mention should also be made of the small dishes from Saint Demetrios in Thessaloniki, which came into the collection in 1924 from the excavations being carried out by the then Director of the Museum George Sotiriou.  The dishes are dated to the late Byzantine period, when plates were getting smaller and deeper because they were intended to be used for foods with sauces. The collection also includes cooking pots and above all cauldrons, which usually retain the same form as those of the Roman period, as their use remains the same down the centuries. Most of them were handed over by the 1st Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities.  The collection contains another rare piece of tableware, the saltsario or sauce boat, which found a place at the Byzantine table. It was used in the preparation and serving of sauces.
   
Post-Byzantine glazed ceramics are also represented in the Museum's collection and follow Byzantine tradition as regards their construction techniques and decoration as well as their shape.  However, there are not so many of them. Some small dishes with incised spiral decoration and jugs with trefoil spouts, the bodies of which are often covered by foliate decoration are also included in the Museum's collection.