NEW YORK – 21 NOVEMBER 2024 – Phillips is pleased to announce highlights from the forthcoming single-owner Design sale, Moved by Beauty: Works by Lucie Rie from an Important Asian Collection, which will take place at 10am EST on 11 December at its New York headquarters. The sale will feature more than 70 works by British studio ceramist Lucie Rie created between circa 1950 and 1985.

Benjamin Green, Associate Specialist, Design, New York, said, “This is a particularly momentous occasion, as we are presenting the first sale dedicated to Lucie Rie’s work at any auction house in the United States. The works included in the sale come from an important Asian collection assembled over nearly two decades and spanning more than 30 years of artistic creation. The collection reflects not only is Rie’s incredible technical range, but her aesthetic influences as well—from ancient Rome and Byzantium to the ceramic traditions of China and Japan.”

The sale features some of Rie’s most recognizable forms, glazes, and techniques, and when considered collectively, they provide a survey of her passions that informed her practice. A variety of footed bowls, among Rie’s most iconic forms, are included. With an elevated profile raised lightly on a slim foot, Rie shows traces of the ancient Roman terracotta vessels she first encountered as a teenager spending time with her uncle, an amateur archaeologist. In the late 1940s, after visiting a museum near Avebury and viewing the Bronze Age pots with decorations scratched with bird bones, Rie devised her own sgraffito technique, using a pin to incise her designs. And in a rare bowl from circa 1978, Rie drew on Chinese ceramic traditions by experimenting with the “rice grain” technique, where the bowl is dotted with semi-perforations, allowing for delicate flecks of light to pass through the translucent porcelain.

The sale continues Phillips’ tradition of presenting exceptional collections of studio ceramics. It follows the success of the November 2023 Phillips London Design sale, Lucie Rie and Hans Coper, Exceptional Ceramics: Selections from the Estate of Jane Coper and the former Collection of Cyril Frankel, where Phillips cemented its reputation as a leader in the global ceramics market, particularly in British studio pottery, with a sales total that exceeded its presale high estimate by 174%.

Estimates for Moved by Beauty: Works by Lucie Rie from an Important Asian Collection range from $2,000 – 3,000 to $60,000 – 80,000. The sale preview is open to the public from 6-11 December at 432 Park Avenue, New York and will be presented alongside the New York Design Sale, which will take place at 2pm EST on 11 December.

(Press Release)