Lucie Rie - Important Design London Wednesday, April 25, 2018 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Jean Stella Price, U.K., acquired directly from the artist
    Thence by descent to the present owner

  • Literature

    Lucie Rie: A retrospective exhibition of earthenware, stoneware and porcelain 1926-1967, exh. cat., Arts Council, London, 1967, fig. v for a similar example
    Serene Beauty: Lucie Rie Retrospective 100th Anniversary of her Birth, exh. cat., The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park / The Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki, 2002, fig. 24 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.

    View More Works

53

Flaring bowl

circa 1972
Porcelain, manganese glaze with sgraffito design.
8.6 cm (3 3/8 in.) high, 16.5 cm (6 1/2 in.) diameter
Impressed with artist's seal.

Estimate
£20,000 - 30,000 

Sold for £62,500

Contact Specialist
Madalena Horta e Costa
Head of Sale
+44 20 7318 4019

Important Design

London Auction 26 April 2018