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Handcrafted Ceramic Mug by Local Artist - $45 (Stillwater)
condition:
like new
make / manufacturer:
Marjorie Wade
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Iron-rich, coarse-grained stoneware clay with visible dark speckling showing through the glaze.
A classic ash or celadon-style reduction glaze gives it a light olive/gray-green tone, paired with an iron-saturated brown oxblood or iron-wash rim.
Has a highly distinct pulled handle feature. Notice the sharp, pinched, ergonomic thumb rest at the top termination, which is a signature flourish common to utilitarian mid-century and folk potters.
The tall, slightly flared tankard shape combined with these glaze selections strongly points to a traditional mid-to-late 20th-century Warren MacKenzie school aesthetic, which heavily dominated Minnesota studio pottery through the St. Croix Valley pottery community. Potters trained under or inspired by this tradition leaned heavily into these rustic, functional, Mingei-influenced styles.
The brown iron-wash glaze lining the rim and coating the entire interior confirms that this mug was designed intentionally as a highly functional, daily-use coffee or tea tankard.
Using a darker, iron-rich glaze (like a classic Albany slip, Temmoku, or dark iron wash) on the inside serves a brilliant practical purpose in studio folk pottery: it effortlessly masks tea and coffee tannin stains over decades of use.
Given the combination of the fluid incised "MW" monogram, this mug is a textbook example of work by Marjorie Wade.
Marjorie Wade is a celebrated St. Croix Valley studio potter operating out of Spiritworks Pottery in Afton/Stillwater, Minnesota. Her work is deeply rooted in the functional, simple beauty of the Japanese Mingei folk tradition—a philosophy heavily popularized in Minnesota by Warren MacKenzie.
Measures approximately 4.5 inches tall with a 3 inch diameter top opening. This special mug is in excellent, likely unused, condition.
Cash only on pick up in Stillwater.