Priority Bidding is here! Secure a lower Buyer’s Premium today (excludes Online Auctions and Watches). Learn More
Property from the late William Ohly Collection

303

Lucie Rie

Conical bowl with oval lip

Estimate
£4,000 - 6,000
£6,875
Lot Details
Porcelain, inlaid blue and manganese lines beneath a pale blue glaze.
early 1950s
9.5 cm (3 3/4 in.) high, 12.3 cm (4 7/8 in.) diameter
Impressed with artist's seal.

Lucie Rie

Austrian | B. 1902 D. 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.
Browse Artist