Hand Built White Porcelain Vase with Lace Imprints

This hand built white porcelain vase with lace imprints is the work of the French ceramic artist Alice Riehl. Two joined cylindrical volumes form a U-shaped vessel whose whole surface carries the print of real lace and crochet: fine net, open mesh, scalloped borders and a wide band of knotted work run around the body in horizontal registers. The upper edge is torn and ruffled, with curled porcelain petals rising above the rim, and a clear glaze pools over parts of the relief while the rest stays matte biscuit. The colour is a warm cream white that takes the light differently on the glazed and unglazed areas.

Alice Riehl works in Paris with porcelain and textile. She soaks lace, crochet and embroidery in porcelain slip and fires the piece so that the fabric burns away and only its imprint remains, which gives her vessels their characteristic openwork and torn edges. This vase is a good example of that technique at a generous scale.

Signed on the underside.

A beautiful piece.