Stephen Polchert

Compressed jar

Stoneware with matte iron glaze

Signed S. Polchert and dated 1-50

4 in. H × 3.5 in. diameter

Small, full-bodied pot with a narrow mouth and no neck—almost spherical, settling onto a tight foot. Matte reddish-brown glaze with a faint gold speckle and a few darker iron spots; the rim is darker where the glaze thickened. Thrown and finished with a quiet, closed silhouette typical of Polchert’s early studio work.

Incised signature and date on the foot. January 1950, two years before his Cranbrook BFA.

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) under Maija Grotell. He spent most of his working life in the Omaha area—University of Omaha / Joslyn, Boys Town Trade School (1954–78), and teaching 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; this early jar shows the drier iron palette he used before that shift. Grotell—and, more distantly, Bernard Leach—remain the main points of reference.