Leon Moburg Studio Pottery Chalice — Inset Art Glass View Watchlist >
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Lot # F1018
System ID # 29730210
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Leon Moburg Studio Pottery Chalice — Inset Art Glass
A wheel-thrown chalice-form vessel by American studio potter Leon Moburg, rising on a tall flared pedestal foot to a rounded body and a softly collared rim. The creamy white glaze is set throughout with dozens of colored glass beads — cobalt, emerald, ruby, amber, turquoise, yellow, and black — each seated in its own hand-cut well. The underside is incised with the artist's signature.
Moburg taught ceramics at the University of Redlands for more than three decades and built his reputation on inventive glaze and form. That sensibility shows here in the play of light: the glass beads pass through the clay wall and are visible from the interior, so they glow from within when the vessel is lit or set against a bright surface. The result is part vessel, part luminary — a sculptural studio work as much for display as for use.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Leon Frank Moburg (1927–2013) was an American studio potter and longtime professor of ceramics at the University of Redlands in California, where he taught from 1959 to 1992. Born in Monmouth, Illinois, he studied at Wesleyan College of Fine Arts in Macon, Georgia, and earned an MFA from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, with further graduate study at Ohio State University. Across a career spanning more than three decades, Moburg became known for his inventive approach to glaze and form, producing one-of-a-kind vessels that paired technical command of the medium with a distinctive decorative sensibility. His work was exhibited during his lifetime and is collected as an example of mid-century American studio ceramics.
CONDITION
In good condition overall, with no remarkable damage and no chips or cracks. Fine crazing is visible throughout the glaze, consistent with age and typical of hand-thrown studio ware. All glass beads remain present and securely seated in their wells.
DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS
- Overall height: 12 1/2 in
- Diameter: 8 in
- Weight: 4 lbs 6 oz
- Form: Wheel-thrown footed chalice / pedestal vase, hollow stem
- Body: White-glazed ceramic with embedded multicolored glass beads
- Marks: Incised "L.F. Moburg" to underside (visible in reference photos)
- Campbell's Soup Can (4" H) Shown for Scale
