Fischer Fine Art, London
Private collection, Palm Beach, acquired from the above
Phillips, New York, "Design Masters," December 15, 2010, lot 48
Acquired from the above by the present owner
"Nine Potters," Fischer Fine Art, London, September 18-October 10, 1986
"Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fantasy," The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey, February 14-June 1, 2003
John Houston, ed., Lucie Rie: A Survey of her Life and Work, exh. cat., Crafts Council and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1981, pp. 48, 88 for similar examples
Nine Potters, exh. cat., Fischer Fine Art, London, 1986, illustrated p. 23
Tony Birks, Lucie Rie, Yeovil, 1994, p. 74 for a similar example
Serene Beauty: Lucie Rie Retrospective 100th Anniversary of her Birth, The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park / The Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki, 2002, p. 45 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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