Frances Senska 6.375” h lidded stoneware Teapot. Condition is "Used". Shipped with USPS Priority Mail.
This vintage original stoneware teapot is handcrafted by the renowned potter, artist, and teacher, Frances Senska, who instructed famed Peter Voulkos, Rudy Autio (Tiffany Award Recipient), Ray Campeau, Ken Edwards, and many more!
It is covered in rich darker green drip glaze with hues of pale green, a few hints of blue by the handle, and darker brown speckles on the exterior while the interior is a dark oil glaze. It has a fine slightly domed lid with a fluted top with glazing matching the body. Its condition is mint, no chips or cracks. This has been part of my personal collection for a number of years (purchased in Billings, Montana).
Its dimensions are: 6.375”h x 7.0”w across the top (spot tip to handle end). It has France’s FS signature under the heavier glaze. Beautiful, unique, and highly sought after.
“Signature FS is under heavier glaze on bottom.” (Taped off, last photograph)
Condition: Mint
From The Marks Project:
Frances Senska
1914Born Batanga, Camaroon
2009Died Bozeman, Montana
EDUCATION
1935 B.A., University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
1939 M.A., University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
ca.1942 Edith Heath, California Labor School, San Francisco, California
ca.1945Maija Grotell, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
1950 Marguerite Wildenhain workshop, Pond Farm near Guerneville, California
PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE
1939-1942 Art Instructor, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa
1942-1946WAVE U.S. Navy Reserves
1946-1973Professor of Art, Montana State College, Bozeman, Montana
1948Founding member of Montana Institute of the Arts, Kalispell, Montana
1954-1956Crafts Chair, Montana Institute of the Arts, Kalispell, Montana
1961-1962Director, Montana Institute of the Arts, Kalispell, Montana
1964 Fellow, Montana Institute of the Arts, Kalispell, Montana
AWARDS
1979Honorary Life Member, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA)
1982Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana
1988Fellow Award, American Craft Council
1988 Montana Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts
2002Meloy-Stevenson Award of Distinction for Outstanding Service to the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana
Frances Senska is known for wheel-thrown locally dug stoneware functional pottery with pulled handles and finials. Surface techniques included wax resist and locally sourced slip and glazes materails.
Senska was a professor who was called the Grandmother of Ceramics in Montana. She founded the ceramics program at Montana State College in 1946. Here Senska taught her students ceramics from clay to fire including: the digging, drying, grinding and mixing of clay; the forming of ceramic wares; and the final firing processes. Senska’s students included Rudy Autio & Peter Voulkos. For Voulkos Senska’s influence could be seen in his mastery of monumental wheel-thrown stoneware functional forms with wax resist surface technique.
During World War II Senska was in the women’s branch of the United States Naval Reserve, the WAVEs (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). She was stationed in San Francisco were she was introduced to the potter’s wheel in a night school class taught by Edith Heath. Senska studied with Maija Grotell and later with Margueritte Wildenhain.
Known for her service to the field, Senska influenced the development of the Archie Bray Foundation from its very beginnings and was a founding member of the Montana Institute for the Arts (Montana Arts Council).
An interview with Frances Senska was conducted April 16, 2001 by Donna Forbes, for the Archives of American Art’s Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
Public Collections
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
Holter Museum, Helena, Montana
Bibliography
Browning, Skylar. “Ms. Senska’s Opus.” Missoula Independent 17, no. 49 (December 7, 2006).
Frances Senska: A Life in Art. Helena, MT: Holter Museum of Art, 2005.
“Eleven Montana Potters.” Studio Potter 8, no. 1 (1979).
Folk, Thomas. “Frances Senska: Studio Potter. American Ceramics 8, no. 2.
“Frances Senska (Exhibit in the Boardwalk Room of Gallery “85, Billings, Montana).” Ceramics Monthly 20 (November 1972).
Galusha, Emily, and Mary Ann Nord. Clay Talks: Reflections by American Master Ceramists. Minneapolis, MN: Northern Clay Center, 2004.
Hunter, Robert, ed. Ceramics in America 2004. Fox Point, WI: Chipstone Foundation, 2004.
Levin, Elaine. The History of American Ceramics 1607 to the Present. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1988.
Newby, Rick. “Frances Senska: Missionary for Modernism. American Craft 65, no. 2 (April/May 2005).
“Portrait.” Bulletin of the Portland Museum of Art 15 (June 1954).
Senska, Frances. “Pottery in a Brickyard.” American Craft 42 (February/March 1982).
Smith, Marjorie. “Frances Senska. Ceramics Monthly 50, no. 7 (September 2002) 50- 54.
“Frances Senska Interview, 1998 June 9.” General Montana History Collection (Montana Historical Society) 2 tapes.
“Frances Senska and Jessie Wilbur Interview, 1979 July.” General Montana History Collection (Montana Historical Society) 1 tape.
Autio, Lele, Gennie DeWeese, and Frances Senska. “Montana Historical Society Panel Discussion 1990 March 7.” General Montana History Collection (Montana Historical Society) 1 tape.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. “Evolving Forms with Frances Senska.” Bozeman, MT: Montana State University, 1978, VHS.
Smith, Marjorie, and Bill Neff. “Frances Senska – Art All the Time.” Bozeman, MT: KUSM-TV/MontanaPBS, 1997 DVD, VHS.