Black-Figure Little Master Lip Cup Signed by the Potter Tleson

Black-Figure Lip Cup of the Little Masters

Signed by the potter Tleson

Attributed to the Tleson Painter (Beazley)

Greek Art, Attica, circa 540 BC.

Beige-orange clay, slip and red painted highlights.

Wear to the slip. Fragmentary and reassembled in a “museum-style” manner (modern foot). Traces of ancient restorations.

Diameter: 20 cm; Length: 28 cm; Height: 14.3 cm.

Provenance: Casa Serodine, Ascona, 1970s.

Antoine Hizembert Collection, 2012.

Bibliography: Published by J. D. Beazley, Paralipomena (Oxford, 1971), p. 75.

Published by P. Heesen, Athenian Little Master Cups, 2011, no. 312, pl. d.312.

Published by Oakley, 1997, p. 12, no. 12 (brief mention).

Beazley Archive Number: 350516.

This elegant black-figure lip cup of the Little Masters, signed by the potter “TLESONHONEARXOSEPOIESEN” (“Tleson, son of Nearchos, made it”), between two incised palmettes, is an interesting example because of the inscription it bears.

The lip is decorated with a swan whose details are finely incised and enhanced with red paint. These cups, known as “Little Master Cups,” owe their name to the miniature scale of their decoration, sometimes remarkable, as is the case here. Tleson, son of Nearchos, was one of the finest representatives of this category.

This cup also features holes, traces of an ancient restoration, attesting to the precious nature of this work even in Antiquity.

An identical cup, but with the swan facing the opposite direction, originating from Vulci, appeared in the Pourtalès sale of 1834 under no. 424, pl. XLI.