During the 6th century B.C. the workshops of toreutics producing metal vases were often identified with those manufacturing bronze figurines. Therefore, each time they follow the particularities of the local tradition. The Argive workshops must have been established near Heraion and its creations stand out for the care of the detail and their attentive design. It manufactured eared cups, tripods, lebes and hydriai. Its main characteristic is the engraved tongue-like patterns that cover the vase in two zones, an element which is later found in Corinth as well. In Laconia the shapes are more geometric and the patterns in the attachments of the handles are inspired by the repertoire of mythical monsters. The Laconian gorgoneia are notable for their vividly animal look. It is certain that, besides hydriai, large volute craters were also manufactured with a hammered body and cast handles.

However, the most important centre for Archaic toreutics was Corinth, both in the variety of shapes and decoration and in the wide spread of its products. Indeed the Corinthian metal vases travelled wherever the Greek went, from Colchis to Cumae in Italy and from the north Africa to the interior of the Balkans. The hydriai and the oinochoai often have the figures of kouroi and lions on their handles. On other occasions female busts or lion heads were placed exactly over the mouth of the vase, thus combining the function of the apotropaic symbol with its aesthetic presentation. The craters are another commercial success of the Corinthian artists of toreutics. They were often placed on a tripod and were decorated with relief of solid figures. They also manufactured beak-shaped prochous, two handled foot-bath, kadoi and phialai, whereas among the drinking vessels, the kotyle prevailed. In Peloponnese other workshops of toreutics also operated. The existence of the workshop in Olympia is certified -where craftsmen from various regions worked- whereas we assume that there were local workshops in the area of Sicyon and Aegium.

In Macedonia the prevailing burial practices allowed the preservation of important examples of toreutics of the 6th century, that either came from the local workshops, or were imported from south and east Greece. Certain types that were formerly attributed to Peloponnesian workshops, such as the known "Argive" craters, seem, according to more recent researches, to be original, local creations.

Undoubtedly the production of toreutics of the Magna Graecia was very important. We distinguish Laconianizing and Corinthianizing areas, but the restricted number of vases that come from those areas prevents a precise distinction of the local centres. However, one of these was found in Campania, whereas another must have been Tarentum in Apulia. Discoveries from Poseidonia, Metapontium, Leontini and Gela are already known from earlier times. Nevertheless, the excavations of recent decades have clearly indicated the close tights (especially of Apulia) with the Corinthian colonies in the Ionian Sea and in Macedonia.
The largest surviving bronze vase of antiquity, the crater of Vix, which was found in a grave of a Celtic princess in Burgundy, must be attributed to a south-Italian workshop.