Lucie Rie - Design London Wednesday, April 23, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Private collection, London.  Acquired directly from the artist.

  • Literature

    Tony Birks, Lucie Rie, London, 1991, p. 201 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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59

Small bowl

c. 1974
Porcelain, matt white and running manganese glazes.
9.5 cm. (3 3/4 in.) diameter
Impressed with artist’s seal.

Estimate
£2,000 - 3,000 

Sold for £5,000

Design

24 Apr 2008, 2pm
London