Lucie Rie - Design New York Tuesday, June 6, 2017 | Phillips

Design

New York Auction 6 June 2017

  • Provenance

    Private collection of a tea master, Kyoto
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    Tony Birks, Lucie Rie, Yeovil, 1994, pp. 109, 117 for similar examples

  • Artist Biography

    Lucie Rie

    Austrian • 1902 - 1995

    Dame Lucie Rie studied under Michael Powolny at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna before immigrating to London in 1938. In London she started out making buttons for the fashion industry before producing austere, sparsely decorated tableware that caught the attention of modernist interior decorators. Eventually she hit her stride with the pitch-perfect footed bowls and flared vases for which she is best-known today. She worked in porcelain and stoneware, applying glaze directly to the unfired body and firing only once. She limited decoration to incised lines, subtle spirals and golden manganese lips, allowing the beauty of her thin-walled vessels to shine through. In contrast with the rustic pots of English ceramicist Bernard Leach, who is considered an heir to the Arts and Crafts movement, collectors and scholars revere Rie for creating pottery that was in dialogue with the design and architecture of European Modernism.

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Property of a Japanese Collector

73

Lucie Rie

Lidded jar

circa 1960
Stoneware, yellow glaze, the interior of the lip and the underside matte blue with diagonal sgraffito lines.
4 in. (10.2 cm) high, 2 1/2 in. (6.4 cm) diameter
Underside impressed with artist's seal and incised LUCIE RIE.

Estimate
$8,000 - 10,000 

Sold for $11,250

Contact Specialist
Cordelia Lembo
Specialist, Head of Sale
+1 212 940 1265

Design

New York Auction 6 June 2017