Vase
Mary Goldsmith Scheier, American, 1909 - 2007
Edwin Scheier, American, 1910 - 2008
1950s
Incised stoneware with brown and grayish-blue glaze
Overall: 10 3/4 × 5 in. (27.3 × 12.7 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: From the collection of Professor Elliot and Lillian Zupnick, given in their memory by their children, Henry and Judith Zupnick
2010.44.2
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Furnishings: Household Accessory
Research Area
Decorative Arts
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed, on underside: Scheier
Label
Mary about a Song bowl: To me this has a life. Something happened between the potter who made this beautiful Song bowl and the clay. The minute I held it and experienced the feel of it in my hand, I knew that’s the way I wanted to go.
Edwin: People who have looked at these things have found things that I didn’t even know were there . . . a feeling of entrapment in so many of them.
Mary and Edwin Scheier shared their studio practice, signing each work with just their last name. Mary tended to make sleek, light, elegant vessels, while Ed tended toward objects with sgraffito patterns and narrative scenes on the surfaces. But they would also work on each other’s vessels, making the task of differentiating their hands a challenge. They enjoyed a long and productive career, mostly in New Hampshire, making art pottery and teaching a new generation of studio potters.
From the 2025 exhibition Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, curated by John Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961 Director; Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art; and Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. and Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programing
Exhibition History
Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 26,2025.
Published References
Michael K. Komanecky, American Potters: Mary and Edwin Scheier. Manchester, NH: The Currier Gallery of Art, 1993.
Provenance
The artist, Durham, New Hampshire; sold to Elliot Zupnick (1923-2003) and Lillian Greenberg Zupnick (1924-2009), about 1945-1960s; bequeathed to Judith and Henry Zupnick, their children, 2009; given to the present colleciton, 2010.
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