Lucie Rie - Design New York Wednesday, June 9, 2021 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Sotheby’s, London, "Decorative Arts," April 13, 1984, lot 340
    Claire Frankel, London, acquired from the above
    Phillips, New York, "Design," June 9, 2010, lot 81
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    John Houston, ed., Lucie Rie: a survey of her life and work, exh. cat., Sainsbury Center, Norwich, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1981, p. 34 for a similar example
    Tony Birks, Lucie Rie, Vendin le Vieil, 2006, p. 48 for a similar example

  • 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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51

Oval bowl

circa 1947
Earthenware, unglazed exterior, white well with painted manganese lines crossing a yellow band.
3 in. (7.6 cm.) high, 5 1/2 in. (14 cm) diameter
Underside impressed with artist’s seal.

Estimate
$5,000 - 7,000 

Sold for $13,860

Contact Specialist

DesignNewYork@phillips.com
212-940-1268

Design

New York Auction 9 June 2021