Viktor Schreckengost & Cowan Pottery Studio, Cocktails and Cigarettes Punch Bowl, 1931
Viktor Schreckengost (American, 1906-2008)
Cowan Pottery Studio (American, 1921-1931)
Cocktails and Cigarettes Punch Bowl, 1931
Glazed earthenware with engobe, sgraffito; 16 7/8 in. (42.8 cm.) diameter x 9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm.)
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Elizabeth Mather McMillan 2000.128
While organizing the exhibition of Viktor’s work, I learned that he had also made another punch bowl around 1930, which was a variation of the Jazz Bowl design featuring imagery of Cocktails and Cigarettes. It was this piece rather than the Jazz Bowl that Viktor exhibited at the Cleveland Museum’s May Show in 1931, where it won first prize from a jury that included the illustrious painter John Sloan. By a delicious irony, object celebrating sinful pleasures was purchased from the May Show by S. Livingston Mather, a direct descendant of Cotton Mather and other Puritan Divines. With some prompting from William Milliken, the director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Mather agreed to purchase the piece for $100, or twice the asking price of $50, on the condition that the design would not be duplicated. Thus, unlike The Jazz Bowl, which was produced in a small edition, this one was unique.
I was eager to locate Cocktails and Cigarettes, to include it in the show, but when I contacted them, Mather’s descendants insisted that they didn’t own the piece. Then, a few months later, they discovered it in a china cabinet, hidden behind some other objects, and donated it to the museum.
Bibliography
Henry Adams, “Cocktails and Cigarettes,” Member’s Magazine, Cleveland Museum of Art, December 2000.