Dame Lucie Rie

In 1938, Lucie Rie fled Nazi Austria (Vienna) and emigrated to England, where she settled in London. Around this time she separated from Hans Rie, a businessman whom she had married in Vienna in 1926, and their marriage was dissolved in 1940. For a time she provided accommodation to another Austrian émigré, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger. During and after the war, to make ends meet, she made ceramic buttons and jewellery, some of which are displayed at London's Victoria and Albert Museum and as part of the Lisa Sainsbury Collection at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich.

Hans Coper

In 1946, she hired Hans Coper, a young man with no experience in ceramics, to help her fire the buttons. Although Coper was interested in learning sculpture, she sent him to a potter named Heber Mathews, who taught him how to make pots on the wheel. Rie and Coper exhibited together in 1948. Coper became a partner in Rie's studio, where he remained until 1958. Their friendship lasted until Coper's death in 1981.

Rie's small studio was at 18 Albion Mews, a narrow street of converted stables near Hyde Park. She invited many people to her studio and was renowned for giving her visitors tea and cake. The studio remained almost unchanged during the 50 years she occupied it and has been reconstructed in the Victoria and Albert Museum's ceramics gallery.

Rie was a friend of Bernard Leach. Coper, Rie and Leach are probably the three greatest studio potters of the 20th century.

AUCTION DETAILS
Tuesday 6 October | 10.30am
Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE

This is an online auction with auctioneer.

VIEWING:

• Our specialists will be providing detailed conditions reports and additional images as requested.
• Viewing will be by appointment and in accordance with Covid-19 regulations.
  
  Thursday 1 October: 10am-5pm
  Friday 2 October: 10am-5pm
  Sunday 4 October: 10am-2pm
  Monday 5 October: 10am-5pm
  There is no viewing on the day of the auction. 
  
  To book a viewing appointment: +44 (0) 1635 553 553 | info@dreweatts.com

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