CLOCKWISEFROMTOPLEFT:FOOTEDBOWL,PORCELAIN,YELLOWTRANSPARENTGLAZE,6CMHIGH,1955;

STRAIGHTSIDEDBOWL,TRANSLUCENTPORCELAININLAIDWITHCOPPERPIGMENT,GREENTINGEDTRANSLUCENTGLAZE,DIAMETER12.3CM. 1966;

SQUASHEDFOOTEDBOWL,COARSESTONEWARE,WHITEPITTEDGLAZE,22.5CMHIGH,1956; BOWL,PORCELAINWITHELONGATEDSGRAFFITOLETTERINGCUTTHROUGHBANDOFMANGANESEPIGMENT,10CMDIAMETER,1949

introduction at the Dartington conference Robin Tanner wrote in Double Harness (1987): ‘But of all that great company two attracted me more than any others, Hans Coper and Lucie Rie.’He elaborated: 'Their pots in the exhibition that had been staged for the conference had been an astounding revelation to me: the egg-shell fragility and perfection of form and texture of Lucie Rie’s porcelain and stoneware, and its masculine counterpan in the unique forms and memorable textures of Hans Coper’swork, set a completely new standard of judgement for me . On the second day I accosted them in the garden. Lucie looked as fragile and beautiful as her pots, though I at once knew I had met a remarkably strong, brave, tenacious character with the humility and dedication of the great.’

Muriel Rose and George Wingfield Digby also recognised Rie’s talent in the early 1950s. Rose, formerly the proprietor of the Little Gallery, was, by that time, working at and purchasing crafts for the British Council, and Wingfield Digby worked in the Textiles Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Apart from working at their official positions, both were collectors in their own right who wrote the standard books of the period: Artist Potters in England by Muriel Rose was published in 1955, and The Work o f the Modem Potter by George Wingfield Digby appeared in 1951.

By the end of the decade, Rie was set on a course of dual production: domestic ware and individual pieces. But Coper left in 1958 and, little by little, the making of cups, saucers and coffee pots lessened. Meanwhile, Rie developed her now-famous forms of bowl, bottle, bottlevase, and beaker; all are thrown, many are gently altered. She mixed her own clay bodies, slips and glazes, always in small batches, which accounts for the many different textures, surfaces and colours which appear in the work. The various oxides and ingredients interact, one with the other in the firing, always producing rich effects and surprises. Looking at Rie’s pots today gives one a feeling of endless enjoyment, of challenge in the making of each form or the exploitation of each process. Rie has a cool head; she kept record books for many years, terse but exact, illustrating individual pots and noting materials and their quantities for clay or glaze.

In 1967 Rie was, in the words of Gabriel

White, the Director of Art at the Arts Council of Great Britain, ‘at the height of her powers', and her work was being exhibited all over the world The major accolade came, however, when the Arts Council of Great Britain, whose brief does not normally include the decorative arts and crafts, organised a retrospective exhibition. The show took place at their St James’s Square Gallery, London, and the catalogue introduction was written by George Wingfield Digby. He identified the intrinsic merits of Lucie Rie’s pots: ‘ - a certain resonance of style, matter and form which is not easily drowned out.’

In 1981 a further prestigious exhibition took place at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, organised by John and Carole Houston. Lucie Rie has produced many more fine pots since, and now, in her ninetieth year, her work is being celebrated once again by a national organisation, the Crafts Council. The current exhibition is a salute to this hugely popular potter whose distinguished career spans over sixty-five years. □ An exhibition entitled Lucie Rie is at the Crafts Council Gallery, 44a Pentonville Road, LondonNl 9BY, (071) 278 7700, until 5April

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