Hans Coper - The Betty Lee and Aaron Stern Collection New York Tuesday, December 17, 2013 | Phillips

The Betty Lee and Aaron Stern Collection

New York 17 December 2013 10am

  • Provenance

    Christie's London, “British Decorative Arts from 1880 to the Present Day," January 28, 1986, lot 88
    Fischer Fine Art, London

  • Literature

    Tony Birks, Hans Coper, Yeovil, 2006, p. 158 for a similar example

  • Artist Biography

    Hans Coper

    German • 1920 - 1981

    Hans Coper learned his craft in the London studio of Lucie Rie, having emigrated from Germany as a young Jewish engineering student in 1939. He initially assisted Rie in the studio with the ceramic buttons she made for the fashion industry, as well as ceramic tableware, but soon Coper was producing his own work. By 1951 he had received considerable recognition exhibiting his pots in the "Festival of Britain." 

     

    Coper favored compound shapes that, while simple in appearance, were in fact complex in construction. Similar to the making of Joseon Dynasty Moon Jars (Rie in fact displayed a Moon Jar in the studio), he would build his vessels by bringing several thrown forms together, for example joining bowls rim to rim. Coper eschewed glazes and preferred the textured surfaces achieved through the application of white and black slips, evoking the abraded texture of excavated vessels. This interest in ancient objects was very much in step with other modernists of his time—Coper admired Constantin Brancusi and Alberto Giacometti and his textured markings have been compared to sculptors such as William Turnbull.

     

    In the last phase of his career, Coper reduced the scale of his work creating small "Cycladic" pots that stood on pedestals or drums, recalling the clay figures of Bronze Age Greece. 

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29

Hans Coper

"Spade" form

circa 1969
Stoneware, layered white porcelain slips and engobes over a body with textured and incised linear designs, the interior with manganese glaze.
12 1/2 x 6 3/4 x 3 1/8 in. (31.8 x 17 x 8 cm)
Impressed with artist’s seal.

Estimate
$16,000 - 24,000 

Sold for $43,750

Contact Specialist
Ben Williams
Senior Specialist, Head of Sale
bwilliams@phillips.com
+ 44 207 318 4027

The Betty Lee and Aaron Stern Collection

New York 17 December 2013 10am