Lucie Rie - Design London Thursday, May 2, 2024 | Phillips

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  • The present lot was gifted to the chauffeur of Lady Sainsbury, who along with her husband Lord Sainsbury, were close family friends of Lucie Rie and great admirers, collectors and supporters of her work. Through this relationship, Lady Sainsbury's chauffeur also became friendly with Lucie and when she asked him what he would like for his birthday, he simply replied 'a vase'. Sometime later he was presented with this Vase with flaring lip.           

     

    A letter from Lucie Rie to the original owner of the present vase with flaring lip.
    Image: Private family archive
    • Provenance

      Private collection, London, gifted directly by the artist, circa 1979
      Thence by descent

    • Literature

      John Houston, ed., Lucie Rie: A Survey of her Life and Work, exh. cat., Crafts Council and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1981, p. 51 for a similar example
      Yoshiaki Inui, Issey Miyake Meets Lucie Rie, exh. cat., Sogetsu Gallery, Tokyo, 1989, plate 45 for a similar example
      Thomas Hoving, 'Serene Genius', Connoisseur Magazine, November 1989, p. 146 for a similar example
      Margot Coatts, ed., Lucie Rie & Hans Coper: Potters in Parallel, exh. cat., Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1997, p. 91 for a similar example
      Tony Birks, Lucie Rie, Catrine, 2009, p. 189 for a similar example

    • 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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83

Vase with flaring lip

circa 1979
Mixed clays producing an integral pink, turquoise and brown spiral beneath the glaze.
30.9 x 14.5 x 13.7 cm (12 1/8 x 5 3/4 x 5 3/8 in.)
Underside impressed with artist's seal.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£12,000 - 18,000 

Sold for £15,240

Contact Specialist

Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
+44 20 7901 7944
Antonia.King@phillips.com
 

Design

London Auction 2 May 2024