Maria Superior Porcelain Model of "Sweet Basil", a Model of a Cow

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Mara Superior (b. 1951)
‘Sweet Basil’: A Porcelain Model of a Cow
Williamsburg, Massachusetts, USA, Dated 1992

A fine and … Read more Mara Superior (b. 1951)
‘Sweet Basil’: A Porcelain Model of a Cow
Williamsburg, Massachusetts, USA, Dated 1992

A fine and characterful porcelain figure of a standing Holstein-Friesian dairy cow named ‘Sweet Basil,’ the title inscribed in Superior’s characteristic spaced italic capitals along the front face of the plinth. The animal is modelled with confident sculptural authority: a broad, well-fleshed body standing squarely on all four legs, the head held forward and slightly lowered with a more assertive, forward-gazing expression than is typical of the companion piece ‘Rosie’ (NY11160) — giving Sweet Basil a distinctly livelier, more bull-like character. Short white applied horns curve upward from the dark head, and a modelled udder is indicated beneath the belly.

The coat is painted in the Holstein-Friesian pattern of large irregular manganese-black patches against a white ground, with Superior’s signature small daisy or asterisk-form flower motifs scattered across the white areas in black underglaze — one, notably, rendered as a reserved white flower within a black patch on the near flank, a small variation that adds visual interest on close inspection. The hooves are dark, and the facial modelling — including a suggestion of the eye rendered in pale grey and dark outline — is more particularised than on ‘Rosie,’ heightening the sense of individual personality.

The cow stands on an oval grass-mound base set on a flat oval plinth, the grass surface rendered in textured green underglaze with fine incised marks suggesting close-cropped pasture, consistent in treatment with the companion piece. The plinth border carries the same repeating small dark-centred red flower and green stem motif, here perhaps slightly more densely placed. The name ‘SWEET BASIL’ is inscribed in neat spaced italic lettering along the front of the plinth, flanked by small cross or arrow devices. The base is incised ‘MARA / 92’ in the artist’s hand.

Together with ‘Rosie’ (NY11160), this piece forms a closely related pair from the same year, sharing the same format, palette, and ornamental vocabulary while differing in the individual character and naming of the animal. The two would display as a natural pair.

Measurements:
6 inches (15.24 cm) high
11 7/8 inches (30.16 cm) wide
3 1/4 inches (8.26 cm) deep

Marks
Incised to the underside of the plinth: ‘MARA / 92’ in the artist’s hand.

Provenance
Private American collection; acquired with ‘Rosie’ (NY11160).

Historical Context
Mara Superior (born 1951, New York City) has worked in high-fired porcelain from her studio in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, since the early 1980s. Her animal figures engage directly with one of the most enduring traditions in European and American ceramics: the named and presented farmyard or prize animal, a convention that runs from seventeenth-century Staffordshire salt-glaze through the cow creamers of Whieldon and Wedgwood, the pearlware bull-baiting groups and sheep figures of the early nineteenth century, and into the great tradition of agricultural show and prize-animal portraiture. Superior’s cow figures adopt the standard Staffordshire format — oval grass mound on a flat bordered plinth — and inflect it with her own ornamental vocabulary: the daisy-scatter motif, the botanical border of repeating small flowers, and the personalising name inscription that transforms a generic animal type into an individual with a domestic identity.

The naming of the cow as ‘Sweet Basil’ is characteristic of Superior’s wit and her thematic concern with the home as a place of warmth, affection, and cultivated pleasure: basil, the kitchen herb par excellence, evokes the domestic garden, the herb-scented household, and the pleasures of growing things — a cluster of associations entirely consistent with Superior’s stated artistic preoccupations. The name also rhymes tonally with the long tradition of giving dairy cows gently comic or affectionate names, a vernacular practice that Superior here elevates into a ceramic inscription.
The 1992 date places both ‘Sweet Basil’ and ‘Rosie’ in the same productive year, and their shared format, dimensions, and palette suggest they were conceived as a pair — whether or not they were made for a specific commission.

Superior’s work from this period was exhibited through Ferrin Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts, and she was the recipient of Massachusetts Cultural Council and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. Her work is held in the collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Racine Art Museum, among many others.

Selected Bibliography
New Britain Museum of American Art. Mara Superior: A Retrospective. New Britain, CT: New Britain Museum of American Art, 2006.
Monroe, Michael W. The White House Collection of American Crafts. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995.
Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950–2000. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art / Rizzoli, 2000.
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Oral history interview with Mara Superior, 1–2 July 2010. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.

(Ref: NY11161-muk) See less