Maria Superior Porcelain Model of "Rosie", a Model of a Cow, Dated 1992

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

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

A charming and accomplished porcelain figure of a standing cow, named ‘Rosie’ in the inscribed title on the plinth, modelled with confident sculptural authority and decorated in Superior’s characteristic underglaze painting technique. The animal — a Holstein-Friesian dairy cow — stands squarely on all four hooves, her head turned very slightly, short white applied horns curving upward, and a modelled udder indicated beneath the belly. The coat is rendered in the breed’s characteristic black-and-white patterning: large irregular manganese-black patches cover the head, hindquarters, and upper back, while the white ground of the body is enlivened with Superior’s signature small daisy or star-form flower motifs painted in black underglaze — a delightful conceit that bridges naturalistic observation with her own ornamental vocabulary. The hooves are painted in a warm dark brown.

The cow stands on an oval grass mound base, the turf surface rendered in textured green underglaze with small impressed or painted marks suggesting close-cropped pasture. The base is set on a flat oval plinth with gently rounded edges, its sides decorated with a continuous repeating border of small stylised flowers — dark-centred pink-red blooms with green stems — identical in character to the botanical sprig borders seen throughout Superior’s work. The name ‘ROSIE’ is inscribed in small, neat spaced capitals along the front face of the plinth, characteristic of the direct personal naming that gives Superior’s animal figures their quality of affectionate individuality.

The base is incised ‘MARA / 92’ in the artist’s hand, confirming the date of 1992.

Measurements:
6 inches (15.24 cm) high
11 1/2 inches (29.21 cm) wide
2 1/2 inches (6.35 cm) deep

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

Provenance
Private American collection.

Condition
The figure is in excellent condition. No chips, losses, cracks, or restoration observed.

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, developing a body of work that draws on an encyclopaedic knowledge of ceramic history — from ancient Egyptian and Chinese traditions through seventeenth-century European tin-glaze and folk slipware — synthesised with a contemporary American sensibility rooted in domestic narrative, autobiography, and the natural world. She was a founding partner of Pinch Pottery/Ferrin Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts, one of the foremost studio ceramics galleries in the northeastern United States, and completed her MAT in ceramics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1980 after a BFA in painting from the University of Connecticut.

The cow figure sits squarely within one of the most venerable traditions in European ceramics: the modelled animal figure, and specifically the cow, has been a recurring subject from Staffordshire slipware and salt-glaze through to the celebrated cow creamers of Whieldon, Wedgwood, and the later Staffordshire potters. Superior’s ‘Rosie’ is clearly in dialogue with this tradition — the oval grass-mound base with flat plinth is a direct quotation of the standard Staffordshire figure format — while the holstein colouring, the added daisy motifs, and the personalising name inscription transform the historical formula into something entirely her own. The naming of the cow is characteristic: Superior’s animal figures are consistently given individual identities, reflecting her stated thematic concern with the home as a place of affection and the natural world observed with intimacy and care.

The 1992 date places this piece in a particularly productive period of Superior’s career, during which she received Massachusetts Cultural Council and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and was actively exhibiting through Ferrin Gallery. Her work entered the White House Collection of American Crafts in 1995, and 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, and the Racine Art Museum, among 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.

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