Hans Coper - The Art of Fire: Selections from the Dr John P. Driscoll Collection London Wednesday, November 10, 2021 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Bonhams, Knightsbridge, 'Contemporary Ceramics: Outstanding and Monumental Works', 25 March 1993, lot 180

  • Exhibited

    'Peter Collingwood|Hans Coper: Rugs and wall-hangings by Peter Collingwood, Pots by Hans Coper', Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 29 January-2 March 1969; Art Gallery Southampton 12 April-4 May; City Museum and Art Gallery Birmingham, 29 May-22 June; City Art Gallery Manchester, 15 July-10 August
    'Lucie Rie/Hans Coper: Masterworks by Two British Potters', The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 15 November 1994-21 May 1995

  • Literature

    Tony Birks, Hans Coper, London, 1983, p. 180 for a smaller comparable form described as 'the most original and powerful form of Hans's last years'
    The Times, 24 March 1993, illustrated p. 18

  • 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. 

    View More Works

82

Monumental ovoid pot

1968
Stoneware, layered porcelain slips and engobes over a textured surface, a deep vertical indent to each face, the interior with a manganese glaze.
46.5 x 38.5 x 38 cm (18 1/4 x 15 1/8 x 14 7/8 in.)
Impressed with artist's seal.

Estimate
£80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠

Sold for £651,700

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The Art of Fire: Selections from the Dr John P. Driscoll Collection

London Auction in association with Maak