This sugar and creamer are the only objecs I own that deserve to be in a museum. They were made by Bauhaus potter Marguerite Wildenhain at her Pond Farm studio in Guerneville, California, near the Russian River, sometime around 1972. I don't think that the picture captures the strength or beauty of the workmanship. They're beautifully thrown, beautifully glazed. To eye or hand they convey almost magical power.
My charismatic, chaotic sister (technically sister-in-law) Phyllis brought these to us from Guerneville, where she studied pottery for three or four summers with "Marguerite." We sent her some cash to buy pots by the artist but these were the only ones that we actually received. Phyllis bought many but she couldn't bear to part with them. And then one by one her treasured possessions would slip out of her hand or be knocked off the shelf by her cats or otherwise wind up as shards. For many years after Phyl's untimely death I preserved in a shoebox the shattered bits of one of Marguerite's most magnificent creations -- a landscape pot which depicted a dozen or so cavorting animals. Where is that shoebox now?
I rarely use these works of art -- they're too magnificent to put at risk.
On the bottom of the creamer, still visible next to the words "Pond Farm," Marguerite has pencilled a price: $12.50. But it's priceless.
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