Lucie Rie

The Lucie Rie Archive at the Crafts Study Centre by Sophie Heath

The Viennese potter Lucie Rie came to England as an emigre in 1938 and after the war built up a successful career hand-making domestic and aesthetic ceramics. Rie's work is widely admired for its independent and modern style and she was hugely influential for British studio pottery. The Crafts Study Centre possesses a good selection of Rie's ceramics but of outstanding importance is the very substantial documentary archive including order books, correspondence, photographs, and financial records. Thanks to a grant from the Headley Trust nearly 500 items are now fully documented and digitally photographed. Prior to the Headley Trust project, which was completed in 2004, barely 40 examples from this resource comprising more than 10,000 items had been fully catalogued, and made searchable, and only a rough outline of its contents existed.

Background of the Archive and new access through the Headley Trust Project

• Lucie Rie and British studio ceramics
• The Lucie Rie Archive at the Crafts Study Centre
• A survey of the Lucie Rie Archive

Primary impressions and general themes of the Archive

• A formidable monument to work
• Vienna and London: contrasting lives
• The thrifty potter
• Lucie Rie's taciturn approach to her craft
• Lucie Rie and plain-speaking

Strengths of the Archive and possibilities for study

• The business of the Lucie Rie Pottery - workshop finances
• Pot design and glaze recipes
• The Festival of Britain, the Council of Industrial Design and the British Council in the 1950s
• Exhibitions - preparations and ephemera
• German language scholarship
• Photographs of pots - different perspectives
• Cultural Heritage

Lacunae

• Hans Coper
• Sources of inspiration
• Teaching
• Conclusion: the rewards of primary research