Greek black-figure Little-Master lip cup with sphinx, Athens, c.540-520 BC
Terracotta
Height: 12.7cm, diameter: 21.5cm, width across handles: 29.8cm
11674 C
Little-Master lip cup, expertly potted, the tondo decorated with a seated sphinx, her wings slightly raised, her face painted in added white and her headband in added red. Bordering the...
Little-Master lip cup, expertly potted, the tondo decorated with a seated sphinx, her wings slightly raised, her face painted in added white and her headband in added red. Bordering the tondo are two sets of quadruple bands with a band of tongues in between. The handles raising upwards, the stem tall.
Recomposed from fragments; the base of the foot and half of the body repaired from several pieces. The sphinx intact, one break line along the lower section of the tondo's outer decoration. Misfiring on the handles touched in.
Provenance
Sybille Kroeber, Berlin, Germany; acquired c.1964Royal Athena Galleries, New York, USA; acquired from Fritz Hugelman October 2001
Private collection, TH, London, UK; acquired from the above 2002