
Courage doesn’t have anything to do with becoming an artist. It’s just something you want to do. I think it’s inside you.
Mary Scheier
Courage doesn’t have anything to do with becoming an artist. It’s just something you want to do. I think it’s inside you.
Mary Scheier
Husband and wife duo Edwin and Mary Scheier enjoyed a prolific and prodigious career that spanned nearly six decades. Their lifelong collaboration began in the late 1930s when they worked for the federal Works Progress Administration. Not long after, the two married and then spent a year as traveling puppeteers before obtaining the opportunity to study ceramics at the Tennessee Valley Authority Ceramic Laboratory. The rest, as they say, is history; the couple fell in love with pottery, Mary becoming incredibly adept at throwing pots, and Edwin at glazing and decoration.
In 1940 they relocated to Durham, New Hampshire at the behest of architect David R. Campbell to work at the University of New Hampshire, where Edwin taught and Mary was artist-in-residence. They settled in and stayed for nearly thirty years, garnering a dedicated following of students and clients, and periodically taking trips to Oaxaca, Mexico to soak up the ancient culture and design. Edwin and Mary moved to Oaxaca full-time in the late 1960s where they lived and worked for nearly ten years before making their final move to Green Valley, Arizona. While in Oaxaca, Edwin branched out into weavings and sculpture, working in indigenous guanacaste wood and designing tapestries that were then woven by local craftspeople.
Auction Results Edwin and Mary Scheier
Tall chalice form
estimate: $1,800–2,400
result: $4,375
Large chalice form
estimate: $2,500–3,500
result: $3,750
Charger
estimate: $1,500–2,000
result: $3,250
Tall chalice form
estimate: $1,000–1,500
result: $3,072
Charger
estimate: $1,500–2,000
result: $3,000
Large footed bowl
estimate: $2,500–3,500
result: $2,750
Large bowl
estimate: $2,500–3,500
result: $2,750
Large chalice form
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $2,500
charger
estimate: $1,500–2,000
result: $2,375
vessel with heads
estimate: $1,000–1,500
result: $2,304
Weaving of a nude figure
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $2,250
Large vessel
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $2,250
Large chalice form
estimate: $1,500–2,000
result: $2,125
Early and Large bowl
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $2,000
Early vessel
estimate: $1,000–1,500
result: $2,000
Tall early vase
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $2,000
Early chalice form
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $1,875
Fine large early bowl
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $1,875
Large vessel
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $1,875
Early low bowl
estimate: $1,500–2,000
result: $1,750
Early chalice form
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $1,750
Large chalice form
estimate: $1,000–1,500
result: $1,625
Untitled (Nude Female and Male Figure)
estimate: $1,350–1,750
result: $1,625
Early vessel
estimate: $1,400–1,900
result: $1,500