Footed Bowl was one of ten works by British potter Dame Lucie Rie that went up for sale at Phillips on July 30, from the estate of editor and writer Claire Frankel of Washington, DC. Presented with an estimate of $25,000 to $35,000, the 14 cm foot bowl went on to fetch a record-breaking $225,000 with buyer’s premium.
The work dates from 1978, a fruitful period during which Rie distinguished herself for her remarkable mastery of form and glaze from her London studio in Albion Mews. Footed Bowl features an unusual matte glaze, bands of manganese, fine turquoise lines, and white porcelain visible at the foot and in the form of small, regular grooves.
The sale of Footed Bowl surpasses Rie’s previous record, which was set at Phillips in 2016 with Flaring Footed Bowl at $212,500. This work also dates to the late 1970s and was reminiscent of the piece that adorns the cover of Rie's biography, published by Tony Birk in 1994.
Rie, a ceramist of Austrian origin, made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1968, then raised to the rank of ‘Dame Commander’ (DCE) in 1991, arrived in the English capital in 1938. After making buttons for the fashion industry, Rie turned to the production of austere and simple tableware, which eventually caught the attention of modernist interior designers.
See also: The Surrealist Ceramics of Wifredo Lam
Her perfectly-legged bowls, slender vases, innovative techniques (such as applying varnish to the raw body and only baking it once), and her decorations limited to incisions and subtle spirals, made her an essential figure in the discipline. The artist is especially revered for having brought her pottery into dialogue with the design and architecture of European modernism.
Claire Frankel began collecting Rie's works in the early 1980s. She devoted several articles to contemporary British ceramics, examining the growing interest of collectors and the evolution of this market segment.
See also: Staffordshire Pottery: Britain's Ceramic Center
Her collection of Rie's works totaled just under $480,000, and also included a Hans Coper piece, Ovoid pot with disc, a 30cm pot made c. 1965, which sold for $162,500, including fees.
Rie and Hans Coper, both arriving in England in the late 1930s, have often been compared because of their close collaboration. But in truth, Coper started out as Rie's assistant after the war, before developing his own style and founding his studio in the 1950s.
