Cotswold Auction Company
Los 54
Dame Lucie Rie DBE (Austrian/British, 1902-1995) A stoneware coffee service for four, circa 1955, impressed LR seal marks, glazed to the exterior in manganese and incised with fine sgraffito bands, comprising: four tapering conical cups, four saucers, a baluster coffee pot and cover with knop finial 19cm high, a baluster milk jug 12cm high and a sugar-bowl, the interiors and undersides of each piece glazed in white (coffee pot with hairline crack, the hairline crack is approx 3cm long, small chip to edge of one saucer) (11) Provenance: Acquired by the present owner's parents in the mid 1950s, while they were touring with Sadlers Wells Theatre Ballet, in the Corp de Ballet and subsequently as principal dancers. Thence by descent to the present owners. Lucie Rie (1902-1995) was born in Vienna and developed an interest in the decorative arts from a young age, studying under the Head of Ceramics, Michael Powolny, at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule. She later opened her own studio, to great acclaim, becoming a much sought-after ceramicist, exhibiting at the Paris International Exhibition in 1925 and winning a gold medal at the Brussels International Exhibition in 1935. Rie fled the approaching Nazi occupation, establishing herself as a Jewish émigré in London in 1938. She initially created glass and ceramic buttons for the Orplid Glass Studio, although she is most well-known for her collaborations with Hans Coper (1920-1981), a German émigré, whom she hired as a studio assistant in 1946. The partnership was a fruitful one; Coper was a huge inspiration for Rie, championing her experimentation and love of modernism. She continued to experiment with glazes, enamel colours and forms throughout her long career. Provenance: Acquired by the present owner's parents in the mid 1950s, while they were touring worldwide, with Sadlers Wells Ballet Company, in the Corp de Ballet and subsequently as principal dancers. Thence by descent to the present owners. Provenance: Acquired by the present owner's parents in the mid 1950s, while they were touring worldwide, with Sadlers Wells Ballet Company, in the Corp de Ballet and subsequently as principal dancers. Thence by descent to the present owners. Condition Report Coffee pot with hairline crack (the hairline crack is approx 3cm long), small chip to edge of one saucer.
