Private collection, United States
Cyril Frankel, London
Phillips, London, "Design," April 25, 2013, lot 266
Acquired from the above by the present owner
"Masterworks: Lucie Rie and Hans Coper," Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum, Royal Pump Rooms, April 21-June 3, 2001; Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Gallery 10 and the Industrial Gallery, June 2002-June 2004
"Masterpieces of Studio Pottery," Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, January 29-May 15, 2005
"Lucie Rie & Hans Coper: Art Alive is Always Modern," Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough, November 28, 2008-February 15, 2009
"Lucie Rie," Tate St Ives, St Ives, May 16-September 27, 2009
Emmanuel Cooper, Lucie Rie, exh. cat., Tate St Ives, St Ives, 2009, illustrated p. 5
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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