From the cupboard
A new feature of our website is to showcase work from our stock cupboards. The selections presented below will change on a regular basis and will feature small groups of work by theme, style or maker. To be automatically notified when a new selection is presented, please join our email mailing list using the form on the Contact page.
Please note if you come to the gallery these items will not be on display - however if you contact us in advance, we will endeavour to make the item available to view.
Hans Coper & Lucie Rie Domestic Ware
Hans Coper joined Lucie Rie at her Albion Mews studio in London in 1946. Lucie had been making pottery at Albion Mews since 1939, but any serious production had been curtailed by the war. Hans Coper had no training in ceramics and was taken on, along with several other refugees, as an assistant making buttons. Hans learnt to throw and by 1948 they had developed a range of functional tableware. Most of the work produced was in white and manganese glazes, often decorated with Lucie’s trademark sgrafitto lines, the inspiration for which she had drawn from Bronze Age pots seen at Aylesbury.
In 1951 Hans and Lucie were the only potters chosen to exhibit in the Festival of Britain, and then later in the year the only British ceramists to be represented at the Milan Triennale (where Lucie had won a gold medal for her own work in 1936). Their work was sold at Heal’s department store on the Tottenham Court road in London and exhibited at the Berkeley Gallery and Henry Rothschild’s Primavera Gallery. In 1958 Hans left to set up his own studio in Digswell, Hertfordshire and their ceramic collaboration came to an end, although their strong friendship would continue until Hans’ death in 1981. Lucie Riecontinued to produce domestic ware items, alongside her studio pieces, throughout her long career.
All works illustrated are for sale. Please email us for availability and prices.
