Lucie Rie - Design London Tuesday, September 23, 2014 | Phillips
  • Literature

    John Houston, ed., Lucie Rie: a survey of her life and work, exh. cat., Crafts Council and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1981, p. 77, fig. 122 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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202

Spherical vase

circa 1972
Stoneware, white glaze, manganese speckle.
15.2 cm (5 7/8 in.) high
Impressed with artist's seal.

Estimate
£2,000 - 3,000 

Sold for £4,000

Contact Specialist
Ben Williams
bwilliams@phillips.com
+44 20 7318 4027

Design

London 24 September 2014 2pm