Jewellery, Watches and Objects of Vertu to include the personal archive of Louis Osman, goldsmith and architect

Louis Osman Archive: A porcelain bowl on silver stand, by Lucie Rie and Louis Osman, the shallow porcelain bowl with white orange skin glaze by Lucie Rie, atop a Britannia standard silver circular stand, with textured finish and three supporting arms, hallmarked for London, 1984, and bearing Louis Osman’s maker’s mark, (bowl repaired), bowl diameter 35.4cm, stand diameter 18cm. £600-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Personal Archive of Louis Osman, Goldsmith and Architect.

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In 1984 Louis Osman collaborated with the famed British ceramicist Dame Lucie Rie (1902-1995) to produce two pieces for the British Exhibition in Tokyo. Their work was a subversion of the 17th and 18th century fashion for Europeans to import and mount Oriental porcelain. Lucie Rie made several white porcelain pieces which do not stand up by themselves, but must be displayed on the Britannia silver and silver gilt stands that Louis made for them. Like Louis, Lucie Rie pushed boundaries in both technique and form, in this case mixing her own porcelain body and using a glaze that enhanced the whiteness rather than the translucency of the porcelain. The work of these two pioneers in different fields complemented each other, to produce two pieces that show off their and each others’ respective art forms to the utmost.

See: Osman, An exhibition at Canons Ashby, May 1974, cat no 71. or 68.
See: Treasures of the 20th century, Goldsmiths’ Company exhibition, May 2000, cat no 274 for a sister bowl and stand.