1960S

Lucie Rie (1902-1995) was born in Vienna and came to England in 1938 to flee from the German occupation of Austria. During the war years, and immediately after, she established a ceramic button-making business in her London flat as a pragmatic means of making a living in the difficult economic environment of post-war Britain. She wanted to return to making pots, taking on Hans Coper (1921-1980) as an employee, and together they established a business producing domestic tablewares.

Rie pursued her individual work when the production regime of the business permitted and although her style of pottery, based on European modernism and minimalism was quite different from that of Bernard Leach, they also established a close, enduring friendship.
For an example with similar glaze decoration in The Museum of Modern Art, New York, (MOMA) see www.moma.org museum number 663.1980.