No 12: Footed bowl, c.1953 (P.74.38)

Lucie Rie began making porcelain in London in the late 1940s, and by the 1950s was exploiting it to show off her fine sense of colour and assured technical control. This footed bowl is thrown, pierced and then incised on the inside with two pairs of lines; the interior is glazed in running manganese pigment (dark brown). The exterior is a deep yellow colour, derived from a natural uranium glaze which the potter is said to have acquired from America and is now obsolete. This bowl was given by the artist to Muriel Rose, an officer of the British Council and writer on the crafts; Rose subsequently bequeathed it to the Crafts Study Centre.