Lucie Rie - Design London Wednesday, April 24, 2013 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Lucie Rie, 1949
    Bonhams, London, ‘Dame Lucie Re: Sale of a Lifetime’, 17 April 1997, lot 110

  • Exhibited

    'Lucie Rie: A retrospective exhibition of earthenware, stoneware and porcelain 1926-1967', The Arts Council Gallery, London, 15 July-12 August 1967, then travelled to: The Midland Group Galleries, Nottingham (26 August-9 September), The City Art Gallery, Bristol (7-29 October)
    'Lucie Rie: a survey of her life and work', Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, November 1981, then travelled to: The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, (Spring 1982)
    ‘Masterworks: Lucie Rie and Hans Coper’, Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum, Royal Pump Rooms, 21 April-3 June 2001 (from collection on temporary loan, 2001-2002)
    Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Gallery 10 and the Industrial Gallery, June 2002-June 2004 (from collection on temporary loan, June 2002-June 2004)
    ‘Masterpieces of Studio Pottery’, Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, 29 January-15 May 2005 (from collection on temporary loan, 26 August 2004-31 July 2007)
    ‘Lucie Rie & Hans Coper: Art Alive is Always Modern’, MIMA, Middlesbrough, 28 November 2008-15 February 2009 (from collection on temporary loan, 1 February 2008-21 August 2012)

  • Literature

    Lucie Rie: A retrospective exhibition of earthenware, stoneware and porcelain 1926-1967, exh. cat., Arts Council, London, 1967, p. 18, cat. 43 for the catalogue entry
    John Houston, ed., Lucie Rie: a survey of her life and work, exh. cat., Crafts Council, London, 1981, p. 69, fig. 62
    Tony Birks, Lucie Rie, Yeovil, 2005, illustrated p. 91

  • Artist Biography

    Lucie Rie

    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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244

Large lidded pot

1949
Stoneware, dark manganese and white glazes, sgraffito design.
48.3 cm (19 in) high
Impressed with artist’s seal. Together with a certificate from the auction ‘Dame Lucie Rie: Sale of a Lifetime’.

Estimate
£30,000 - 40,000 

Sold for £37,500

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Design

London 25 April 2013 2pm