Stephen Polchert

Bottle vase

Porcelain or fine stoneware with speckled oxblood glaze

Signed S. Polchert and dated 4-48

6 in. H × 4 in. diameter

Thrown bottle with a short cylindrical neck and full, slightly flattened body. The glaze is a dense oxblood-to-burgundy field broken by a fine white speckle, pooling darker at the shoulder and fading to raw white at the foot. Early studio piece—April 1948—made while Polchert was still at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, before Cranbrook.

Incised signature and date on the unglazed foot.

Stephen Joseph Polchert (1920–2008)American studio potter. Born in Milwaukee; studied at the Layton School of Art (1946–48), the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, then Cranbrook Academy of Art (BFA 1952, MFA 1953), where he worked under Maija Grotell. He spent most of his career in the Omaha area: University of Omaha / Joslyn, Boys Town Trade School (1954–78), and teaching posts at Dana College, the College of St. Mary, Bellevue College, and Millard High School.

Known for wheel-thrown porcelain and stoneware and for developing hundreds of glazes, later including crystalline surfaces. White clay was his preferred ground for strong color. Influence of Grotell—and, more distantly, Bernard Leach—shows in the clean bottle and jar forms he returned to throughout his life. This 1948 vase sits at the start of that line.