Bowl: C.530-2016

Maker(s)

Potter: Rie, Lucie

Entities

• Bowl

Categories

• Stoneware
• Studio Ceramics

Description

Small stoneware footed bowl, with oval rim. Matt brown/black. Vertical lines are scribed through the glaze on the outside.

Legal notes

Bequeathed by John Shakeshaft

Place(s) associated

• London ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (2016) by Shakeshaft, John, Dr

Dating

20th Century
1976 CE - 1978 CE

Note

Label text from the exhibition ‘Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery’ on display at The Fitzwilliam Museum from 20 March until 17 June 2018: Lucie Rie is better known for her white and coloured pots, but she did make a number of very dark pieces using a manganese glaze. Rie regarded this dark palette as one of her finest accomplishments; she shared some of her glaze recipes with other potters, but refused to divulge this gold-bronze effect as it had taken her years to achieve. A group of later dark works came from a firing in May 1981 in which, inexplicably, most of the pots came out of the kiln an all-over black. Rie could not understand why this had happened, but in retrospect, saw the black pots as an omen of Hans Coper’s death in June of that year.