Lucie Rie - Design London Wednesday, November 2, 2022 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    New Craftsman Gallery, St Ives, UK
    Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1984

  • Literature

    Issey Miyake Meets Lucie Rie, exh. cat., Sogestu Gallery, Tokyo, 1989, pp. 36, 114 for a similar example
    Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, and their Pupils: A Selection of Contemporary Ceramics Illustrating their Influence, exh. cat., Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, 1990, pp. 24-25 for a similar example
    Isabella Smith, Lucie Rie, London, 2022, front cover 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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66

Footed bowl

circa 1980
Porcelain, inlaid pink radiating lines, turquoise and manganese bands.
10.3 cm (4 in.) high, 21 cm (8 1/4 in.) diameter
Underside impressed with artist's seal.

Estimate
£20,000 - 30,000 ‡♠

Sold for £40,320

Contact Specialist

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

Design

London Auction 2 November 2022