Editing Eva Zeisel (section)

==Biography==

===Early life and family===
She was born in [[Budapest]], Hungary, in 1906<ref name=CH>{{cite web|title=Eva S. Zeisel|url=http://collection.cooperhewitt.org/people/18043295/|work=Collections|publisher=[[Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum]]|access-date=30 September 2012}}</ref> to a wealthy, highly educated assimilated Jewish family. Her mother, Laura Polányi Striker, a historian, was the first woman to get a PhD from the [[University of Budapest]]. Striker's work on Captain [[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]]'s adventures in Hungary added fundamentally to our understanding and appreciation of his reliability as a narrator. Zeisel's uncles were [[Karl Polanyi]], a sociologist and economist, and [[Michael Polanyi]], a physical chemist and philosopher of science.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.government-online.net/eva-zeisel-obituary/ |title=Eva Zeisel obituary |access-date=2012-11-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129031018/http://www.government-online.net/eva-zeisel-obituary/ |archive-date=2014-11-29 |url-status=usurped }}</ref>

===Education===
Despite her family's intellectual prominence in the field of science, Zeisel always felt a deep attraction towards art. At 17, she entered Budapest's Magyar Képzőművészeti Akadémia (Hungarian Royal Academy of Fine Arts)<ref name="evazeisel.org">The Eva Zeisel Forum; www.evazeisel.org</ref> as a painter.<ref name=CH/> To support her painting, she decided to pursue a more practical profession and apprenticed herself to Jakob Karapancsik, the last pottery master in the medieval guild system. From him she learned ceramics. She was the first woman to qualify as a journeyman in the Hungarian [[Guild]] of Chimney Sweeps, Oven Makers, Roof Tilers, Well Diggers, and Potters.<ref name="MOMA">{{cite book|last=Butler|first=Cornelia|title=Modern Women: Women Artists at the Museum of Modern Art|publisher=Museum of Modern Art|location=New York}}</ref> After graduating as a journeyman, she found work at the Hansa-Kust-Keramik, a ceramic workshop in Hamburg, Germany.<ref name="CH" />

===Early career, imprisonment, and emigration===
In 1928, Zeisel became the designer for the [[Schramberg]]er [[Maiolica|Majolikafabrik]] in the [[Black Forest]] region of Germany where she worked for about two years creating many playfully geometric designs for dinnerware, tea sets, vases, inkwells and other ceramic items. Her designs at Schramberg were largely influenced by modern architecture.<ref name="Lucie Young 2003">{{cite book|last=Young|first=Lucie|title=Eva Zeisel|date=c. 2003|publisher=Chronicle Books|location=San Francisco|isbn=0811834336|page=11}}</ref> In addition, she had just learned to draft with compass and ruler and was proud to put them to use. In 1930, Zeisel moved to [[Berlin]], designing for the [[Weimar Porzellan|Carstens factories]]. During this period, she met the physicist [[Alexander Weissberg-Cybulski|Alexander Weissberg]], who later worked in [[Kharkov]]. They became engaged in 1932.

After almost two years of a glamorous life among intellectuals and artists in decadent [[Berlin]], Zeisel decided to visit the [[Soviet Union]] in 1932, where she would stay for 5 years.<ref name=CH/>

At the age of 29, after several jobs in the Russian ceramics industry—inspecting factories in [[Ukraine#Inter-war Soviet Ukraine|Ukraine]] as well as designing for the [[Imperial Porcelain Factory, Saint Petersburg|Lomonosov]]<ref name=CH/> and [[Dulyovo porcelain works|Dulevo]] factories—Zeisel was named artistic director of the Russian China and Glass Trust.<ref>{{cite book
|last=Young
|first=Lucie
|title=Eva Zeisel
|date=c. 2003
|publisher=Chronicle Books
|location=San Francisco
|isbn=0811834336
|page=14
}}</ref> On May 26, 1936, while living in Moscow, Zeisel was arrested. She had been falsely accused of participating in an assassination plot against [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref name=CH/> She was held in prison for 16 months, 12 of which were spent in solitary confinement.<ref name=NewYorker/> In September 1937, she was deported to [[Vienna]], Austria. Some of her prison experiences form the basis for ''[[Darkness at Noon]]'', the anti-Stalinist novel written by her childhood friend, [[Arthur Koestler]].<ref name=CH/> It was while in Vienna that she re-established contact with her future husband [[Hans Zeisel]], later a legal scholar, statistician, and professor at [[The University of Chicago]]. A few months after her arrival in Vienna the [[Nazis]] invaded, and Zeisel took the last train out. She and Hans met up in England where they married and sailed for the US with $67 between them.[[File:Eva Zeisel Castleton Museum white.jpg|thumb|Zeisel's Castleton "Museum" dinnerware series commissioned by MoMA in 1942.]]

===US career, 1937–1960s===
When Zeisel arrived in the US, she had to reestablish her reputation as a designer. Beginning in 1937, she taught at [[Pratt Institute]] in New York.<ref name=CH/> She and her students created designs for the Bay Ridge Specialty Company including Stratoware (a rare, short-lived line made for [[Sears]]), designed by student Frances Blod, under Zeisel'ls supervision.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Eva Zeisel: Life, Design, and Beauty|last = Kirkham, Moore, and Wolffram|first = Pat, Pat, and Pirco|publisher = Chronicle Books|year = 2013|isbn = 9781452108520|location = San Francisco, CA|pages = 66–73, 76, 222}}</ref>
[[File:Eva Zeisel Red Wing Pottery 02.jpg|thumb|Some of Zeisel's ceramic pieces designed for [[Red Wing Pottery]]'s "Town and Country" dinner service (1947). This set includes a "mother and child" salt and pepper shakers, and a [[baby oil]] pourer that exemplify her organic, curving forms.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/112519|title=Brooklyn Museum|website=www.brooklynmuseum.org|access-date=2017-04-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/112525|title=Brooklyn Museum|website=www.brooklynmuseum.org|access-date=2017-04-04}}</ref>]]
In 1942, Zeisel was commissioned by the [[Museum of Modern Art]] and Castleton China to design a set of modern, porcelain, undecorated china that would be worthy of exhibition at MoMA, to be produced for sale by Castleton. The resulting exhibition, "New Shapes in Modern China Designed by Eva Zeisel," ran from April 17 to June 9, 1946, and was the first one-woman exhibition at MoMA. It was received with wide praise, but because of wartime constraints the porcelain dishware did not go into production until 1949. Zeisel's dishes, known as "Museum" and "Castleton White," were manufactured and sold over the next several decades, initially in all-white as designed by Zeisel, and later with a wide variety of decorations. Zeisel credited this commission with establishing her reputation in the US, remarking that, "it made me an accepted first-rate designer rather than a run-of-the-mill designer."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = Eva Zeisel: Life, Design, and Beauty|isbn = 9781452108520|location = San Francisco, CA|pages = 68|last1 = Moore|first1 = Pat|last2 = Wolfframm|first2 = Pirco|date = 15 October 2013}}</ref>

"Museum's" success brought Zeisel to the attention of [[Red Wing Pottery|Red Wing Potteries]], for whom she designed the perennially popular "Town and Country" in response to their request for dishes inspired by [[Greenwich Village]].<ref name=":0" />

Around 1949–1950, Zeisel was commissioned by the [[The Hall China Company|Hall China Company]] to create her most popular line, "Hallcraft, Tomorrow's Classic." Production began in 1952 and was a full line of dinnerware and tableware accessories, including plates, bowls, cups and saucers, serving platters and bowls, butter dishes, sugar bowls and creamers, candleholders, salt and pepper shakers, etc., initially intended to be offered in plain white. Some of her Pratt student-assistants were involved in designing the initial decal patterns that Hall requested. Other patterns were designed by the painter [[Charles Seliger]].

In 1955, Zeisel created a second line for Hall called "Century" with production beginning in 1956. In the late 1950s she designed for several international companies including [[Rosenthal (company)|Rosenthal AG]], and Mancioli Pottery.

===Later career, 1980s–2011===

Zeisel stopped designing during the 1960s and 1970s, to work on American history writing projects. Her major research focused on the [[New York Conspiracy of 1741|New York Conspiracy]], an alleged slave rebellion in 1741 New York City which resulted in many innocent slaves being put to death or transported to plantations in the Caribbean. Zeisel found parallels between their trials and the Soviet show trials of which she had been a victim.

She returned to design work in the 1980s.<ref>Traubman, Eleanor; [http://creativetimes.blogspot.com/2007/01/meeting-eva-zeisel.html Meeting Eva Zeisel]; January 13, 2007,</ref> Many of her later designs have found the same success as her earlier designs. These include glassware, ceramics, furniture and lamps for The Orange Chicken, porcelain, crystal and limited-edition prints for KleinReid, glasses and giftware for Nambé, a teakettle for Chantal, furniture and gift-ware for Eva Zeisel Originals, rugs for The Rug Company, "Classic-Century," one of [[Crate and Barrel|Crate & Barrel]]'s best selling dinner services, produced by [[Royal Staffordshire Pottery|Royal Stafford]]. This set combines pieces from the "Tomorrow's Classic" and "Century" lines. ("Classic-Century is now sold by EvaZeiselOriginals.com) Most of the pieces for this set were made from the original molds (dishwasher safe).  She also created a line of flatware produced by Yamazaki for Crate & Barrel, and a coffee table and stoneware / dinnerware set (called Granit) for Design Within Reach.

A bone china tea set, designed in 2000, is manufactured by the Lomonosov Porcelain factory in [[St. Petersburg, Russia]]. Zeisel released two designs in 2010 through EvaZeiselOriginals.com: Eva Zeisel Lounge Chair and Eva Zeisel Salt & Pepper Shakers. The Lounge Chair was featured in the February 2010 issue of [[O Magazine]] and The S&P shakers were featured in the April 2010 issue of O Magazine. Her new designs for a line of glass lamps (pendant, wall and table lamps) was introduced in 2012 by Leucos USA.

In 2017 Spinneybeck/FilzFelt introduced a collection of felt, acoustic wall tiles based on Zeisel's tile and space divider designs. They come in 63 colors, and custom sizes.

Reproductions of earlier designs have been sold at MoMa, [[Brooklyn Museum]] and [[Neue Galerie New York|Neue Galerie]], as well as other museum gift shops.