.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The son of a potter in Sebring, Ohio, Viktor Schreckengost produced some of the 20th century's most influential industrial designs for ceramics, printing presses, trucks, bicycles, pedal cars and street lights. A contemporary of Raymond Loewy, Norman Bel Geddes and Walter Dorwin Teague, Schreckengost studied at the Cleveland School of Art in the mid-1920s and later traveled to Vienna where he honed his craft of sculpting in clay under the tutelage of the legendary ceramicist Michael Powolny. Upon his return home Viktor, only 25 years old, became the youngest faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and by 1931 he received the first of countless awards for excellence in ceramics at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Through much of the 1930s, Viktor focused on plates and vessels with hand-painted decoration. He worked at the Cowan Pottery from 1930 until December 1931, and there he produced some of his most technically challenging and exciting work. Schreckengost sought to achieve spontaneity, and by decorating in clay with powerfully geometric and brazenly modern motifs (often in the sgraffito technique) his creations took on a cubist, machine-age character. His masterpiece is his "Jazz Bowl".
An ode to New York City, the "Jazz Bowl" captures both the essence of an era and the energy of this great metropolis. Decorated with an explosive montage of stylized skyscrapers, cocktail glasses, musical instruments, neon signs, dance club scenes, and mysterious men in hats, the bowl has become one of the most iconic examples of American Art Deco. Schreckengost produced three variations of the "Jazz Bowl". The first, and largest in size, was commissioned by Eleanor Roosevelt who requested a punch bowl with a "New Yorkish" feel. Impressed with the design, she quickly ordered two more. Realizing its broad appeal, Cowan Pottery decided to offer the bowl to the wider public. Because each bowl was hand-made, drawn slightly differently, and proved technically difficult and time consuming to produce, only fifty or so examples were made. The second version, with a flared rim and interior decoration, was produced in an edition of two or three, and the third version, as presented here, was produced in an edition of approximately twenty, according to the artist.
cf. Henry Adams, Viktor Schreckengost and 20th-Century Design, 2000, p. 91 for an illustration of this model.
An ode to New York City, the "Jazz Bowl" captures both the essence of an era and the energy of this great metropolis. Decorated with an explosive montage of stylized skyscrapers, cocktail glasses, musical instruments, neon signs, dance club scenes, and mysterious men in hats, the bowl has become one of the most iconic examples of American Art Deco. Schreckengost produced three variations of the "Jazz Bowl". The first, and largest in size, was commissioned by Eleanor Roosevelt who requested a punch bowl with a "New Yorkish" feel. Impressed with the design, she quickly ordered two more. Realizing its broad appeal, Cowan Pottery decided to offer the bowl to the wider public. Because each bowl was hand-made, drawn slightly differently, and proved technically difficult and time consuming to produce, only fifty or so examples were made. The second version, with a flared rim and interior decoration, was produced in an edition of two or three, and the third version, as presented here, was produced in an edition of approximately twenty, according to the artist.
cf. Henry Adams, Viktor Schreckengost and 20th-Century Design, 2000, p. 91 for an illustration of this model.