Lucie Rie Vase With Flaring Lip Mixed Stoneware Circa 1985

A Fine and Important mixed stoneware vase with flaring lip by Dame Lucie Rie one of the 20th Century’s most important and pioneering ceramic artists.

Made c.1985 and signed with the artist's seal mark LR under the base.

The vessel thrown from a combination of different clays, resulting in the delicate striped or marbled effect seen throughout this piece under the glaze with the notable exception of part of the knop which is somewhat more monochromatic and acts as a very effective contrast. This particular shape is associated with the great Austro-British potter and extremely desirable. 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. 

Rie is one of the most sought after names in studio pottery collectors' circles and a vase of the same form as our piece was chosen to be illustrated on a set of Royal Mail stamps commemorating the studio pottery movement in Britain. The vase later sold at Phillips for over £165,000

https://www.phillips.com/detail/lucie-rie/UK050523/308

Vases of this form are illustrated by John Houston and David Cripps in their monograph Lucie Rie, published by the Crafts Council, in 1981 (pages 51 and 58) and by Tony Birks in Lucie Rie, published 2009, p.189.

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 vase is a sound investment piece.

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.