Paul Pressburger was a California potter who is best known for having worked alongside the Mexican-American artist Raul Coronel (1926 - 2022). Coronel himself studied at the under Marguerite Wildenhain at the College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland counted Peter Voulkos and F. Carlton Ball as colleagues. Pressburger belonged to a generation of California potters who advanced the American Modernism and studio pottery of the 1950’s and ’60’s, defined by artists such as Paul Soldner and Peter Voulkos.

A continuation of the Arts & Crafts movement, American studio pottery was energized by the many European artists who emigrated to the US and taught Bauhaus programs at art schools. Perhaps most the notable California institutions were the University of Southern California and the College of Arts & Crafts whose students would go on to produce Modern ceramics and sculptures equally inspired by Bauhaus, Scandinavian, and Japanese ideas.

This vase’s combination of globular body, narrow short neck, and cup-like mouth make for a classic 1960’s. The clay body does not appear as dense as stoneware, so it could be a type of earthenware. If it is indeed a stoneware clay body it is likely low-fired. The glazing looks like a combination of a white slip covered by an ash glaze on the upper portion then covered with an iron-rich glaze from the shoulder down.

Pressburger favoured repeating patterns or motifs on his pots. The repeating pineapples here were likely made by applying wax to the bisque fired pot prior to adding the ash and iron glazing. Once fired, the wax burned away to leave the light coloured rings of pineapples surrounding the vase’s body.