Stephen Polchert

Studio plate

Stoneware with oxblood / crystalline glazeIncised

S. Polchert / 8-81

10 in. diameter × ¾ in. H

Low, wide charger with a thin profile and a dark rolled rim. The face is glazed in concentric rings of oxblood and near-black, breaking to a pale halo and a speckled crystalline field that reads almost like a night sky around a small unglazed center point. The underside is left in white clay with a black-glazed foot ring. Wheel-thrown; incised signature and date August 1981 at the center of the foot.

A late studio piece from Polchert’s Omaha period, when he was working larger, flatter forms and running high-iron glazes that bloom and crawl in the kiln.

Stephen Polchert (1925–2009)American studio potter. Trained at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee (1946–48) and at Cranbrook Academy of Art under Maija Grotell (1952–53). Settled in Omaha, Nebraska, where he taught and maintained a studio for decades, producing thrown vessels, bowls, and plates marked with incised dates that track a long mid-century practice. His work is collected for its quiet forms and for glazes that range from celadon and tenmoku to the oxblood and crystalline surfaces seen here. Cranbrook alumni records and dated marks (including this 8-81 plate) place him in the generation of American studio potters who moved from school training into independent production after the war.