Dame Lucie Rie Turquoise Blue Stoneware Bowl With Dripping Manganese Glaze

A Fine and Important beautifully minimalist vase in the Japanese style with wavy rim and dripping manganese ‘bronze’ glaze by Dame Lucie Rie one of the 20th Century’s most important and pioneering ceramic artists.

Circa 1985 London signed with the artist's seal mark LR under the base.

Provenance

The Collection of the film director and major studio pottery aficionado Cyril Frankel who was also involved in some of the pioneering arts coverage on the BBC in the 50s and 60s and was responsible for a documentary on Lucie Rie's work filmed in 1982

Acquired directly from Mr Frankel by the previous owner

This wonderful conical vase of minimalist Japanese form, with vibrant graduated turquoise blue glaze and wavy rim is a very fine example of Lucie Rie's work. She is associated most particularly with bowl and bottle forms and we are delighted to have examples of both in our current collection. The dripping bronzed manganese glaze which runs around the rim is trademark Rie but the conical or handkerchief-type form of the bowl is definitely most rare and unusual with this piece being particularly sculptural in its design. 

Produced in her small London studio, Lucie Rie's studio pottery was much more colourful and adventurous in form than the pieces produced by her contemporary Bernard Leach in Cornwall. Though they admired each other greatly, they approached their art from very different angles, Rie's work being somewhat less academic and more playful in tone. Her admirers over the years have included countless famous names with Sir David Attenborough being a particular enthusiast and interviewing her in her studio at one point in 1982 for the aforementioned Cyril Frankel documentary.

Rie's pieces are always desirable but the Frankel provenance is a very desirable aspect of this particular piece. Frankel was a personal friend of the potter and a real supporter of her work and the fact that he thought this piece was worthy of his own collection speaks volumes.

Lucie Rie has been exhibited in a number of important museums, including a show at the Victoria and Albert Museum and her work has been the focus of several publications. Her pottery has sold for as high as 320,000 GBP at auction, several pieces have sold for 100,000 GBP or more and a large number have brought between 30,000 GBP to 50,000 GBP. Her works will certainly continue to appreciate in value making this bowl an excellent long term investment piece especially due to its rarity of form.

Lucie Rie 

Born in Austria in 1902, Dame Lucie moved to England in 1938 to escape the Nazis. Before this she had already developed much of her prodigious talent and had won a silver medal at the Paris International Exhibition in 1937. During the difficult war years, Rie made a living predominantly by making jewellery and buttons in ceramic materials for use by the major couture houses, having to learn to match the glazes to the colours of the fabrics used in the clothing. It is said that the discipline involved in learning this process was invaluable to her development of her abilities. Rie had her first solo show as a potter in 1947 and soon became recognised as one of the pioneers of studio pottery in England and also the leading female exponent in a very male-dominated field. Today her work is highly collectable and her legacy is celebrated by such institutions as the V&A, where this is a mock-up of her workshop in the ceramic galleries, and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich which has a good collection of her work though pieces by the artist are now in most of the major worldwide art museum collections. Rie died in London in 1995 aged 93.

Dimensions

Width  10 inches - 25cm

Height 5.5 inches - 14cm

Depth 10 inches - 25cm