Peter Dingley Gallery, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire Rollo and Marion Ballantyne collection Bonhams, ‘Contemporary Ceramics’, London, 22 June 1995, lot 93
Literature
Lucie Rie and Hans Coper: Masterworks by Two British Potters, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994, a similar vase on p. 11 Tony Birks, Lucie Rie, Yeovil, 1999, a similar vase on p. 216
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.
circa 1970 Porcelain, pale green glaze over a squared body with raised dots. 23.6 cm (9 1/4 in) high Impressed with artist’s seal. Together with a copy of the purchase invoice from Bonhams Auctioneers.