ATTRIBUTED TO THE TLESON PAINTER, SIGNED BY TLESON AS POTTER, CIRCA 545 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC BLACK-FIGURED LIP-CUP
ATTRIBUTED TO THE TLESON PAINTER, SIGNED BY TLESON AS POTTER, CIRCA 545 B.C.
Each side with a siren facing left, an inscription below, reading, "Tleson, son of Nearchos, made [this]," the handles flanked by palmettes; the reserved tondo with two rings around a central dot; details in added red and white
9 1/8 in. (23.2 cm.) diameter, excluding handles

Provenance

J.L. Theodor, Brussels.
The J.L. Theodor Collection; Sotheby's, New York, 17 December 1998, lot 83.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York.
Acquired by the current owner from the above, 1999.

Literature

P. Heesen, The J.L. Theodor Collection of Attic Black Figure Vases, Allard Pierson Series, vol. 10, 1996, no. 33.
H.A.G. Brijder and C.M. Stibbe, "A Bronze Cup in the Allard Pierson Museum," in BABesch 72, 1997, p. 28, figs. 9a-b.
B. Fellmann, "Zur Chronologie des Tleson Malers," in Bentz, 2002, p. 115, no. 30 and App. I.5.
P. Heesen, Athenian Little-Master Cups, Amsterdam, 2011, p. 302, no. 369, pl. 103c.
Beazley Archive Database no. 19880.
Corpus of Attic Vase Inscriptions Database no. 2959a.

Exhibited

Amsterdam, Allard Pierson Museum, The J.L. Theodor Collection of Attic Black Figure Vases, 30 November 1996-9 March 1997.

Brought to you by

G. Max Bernheimer

mbernheimer@christies.com +1 212 636 2247

Lot Essay

Tleson was a potter specializing in Little-Master Cups. J.D. Beazley considered that the majority of Tleson's cups were the work of one painter, whom he called the Tleson Painter. According to J. Boardman (Athenian Black Figure Vases, p. 60), "Tleson is the classic Little Master, no doubt painter and potter, and always naming his father, the painter Nearchos, in his signatures." P. Heesen (Athenian Little-Master Cups, p. 178) lists 237 cups and fragments attributed to the potter Tleson, the Tleson Painter or both, with lip-cups by far in the majority.

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