The present large ovoid pot with disc top on display at the 'Lucie Rie and Hans Coper' exhibition at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, 1967
Photo: Jane CoperProvenance
Bonhams, London, 'International Contemporary Ceramics', 19 September, 2006, lot 174
Acquired from the above by the present ownerExhibited
'Lucie Rie and Hans Coper', Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, April 1967; Gemeente Museum, Arnhem, June 1967
Literature
Tony Birks, Hans Coper, Yeovil, 2013, illustrated p. 62
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.
Property from an Important Collection
70
Large ovoid pot with disc top
circa 1967
Stoneware, porcelain slips and engobes over a textured and incised body, the neck, lip and interior with a rich manganese glaze.
24.4 cm (9 5/8 in.) high
Underside impressed with artist's seal.
Estimate
£40,000 - 60,000 ‡♠
Sold for £226,800
Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
+44 20 7901 7944
Antonia.King@phillips.com
Design
London Auction 2 November 2022
