Vase

Mary Goldsmith Scheier, American, 1909 - 2007
Edwin Scheier, American, 1910 - 2008

Share

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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