Lucie Rie - The Art of Fire: Selections from the Dr John P. Driscoll Collection London Wednesday, November 10, 2021 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Phivos and Sandra Petrou collection, London, acquired directly from the artist, 1981
    Phillips, London, 'Design', 24 April 2008, lot 69

  • Exhibited

    'Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery', Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, 14 September-3 December 2017

  • Literature

    Tony Birks, Lucie Rie, Catrine, 2009, p. 73, for a comparable vase
    Glenn Adamson, Martina Droth and Simon Olding, eds., Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery, exh. cat., Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven and The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 2017, illustrated p. 305

  • Catalogue Essay

    'A curious kiln event had given Lucie a forewarning of Hans [Coper’s] death. Opening a kiln in early May that year Lucie was horrified to find that all her pots were black, unlike anything she had ever made before. She could think of no technical reason at the time for this sombre firing, and she asked Cyril Frankel to dispose of the pots as quickly as possible. Knowing Hans was very ill, she had gone straight to Frome and had stayed with him until a few days before he died' (Tony Birks, Lucie Rie, p. 73).

  • 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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104

'Black firing' vase with flaring lip

1981
Stoneware, over-fired black glaze over a body with combed design.
28.8 cm (11 3/8 in.) high
Impressed with artist's seal.

Estimate
£12,000 - 16,000 ‡♠

Sold for £32,760

Contact Specialist

Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
Antonia.King@phillips.com

Ben Williams
Ceramics Consultant
BWilliams@phillips.com

Marijke Varrall-Jones
Director, Maak
marijke@maaklondon.com

The Art of Fire: Selections from the Dr John P. Driscoll Collection

London Auction in association with Maak