Sotheby's, London, "Decorative Arts Part II: Art Pottery and Studio Ceramics," December 11, 1981, lot 324
Private collection, London
Phillips, London, "Design," September 27, 2011, lot 48
Acquired from the above by the present owner
"Lucie Rie Gebrannte Erde," Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, July 14-September 12, 1999
"Gwen John & Lucie Rie," Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair, London, February 22-27, 2001
Tony Birks, Lucie Rie, Yeovil, 1994, p. 167 for a similar example
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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