1970s INGEBORG ZENKER STUDIO VASE

A small, abstracted ball-shaped vase with an organic form and outstanding glaze from master potter Ingeborg Zenker.  Her initial, the Zenker-Karthausen studio chop mark, and the year of production are incised on the base [see photo].  An expressive piece of 20th-century studio ceramics.

INGEBORG ZENKER was born in Hanover in 1926.  She studied with famed potter Richard Uhlemeyer, passing her master examination in Cologne in 1960.  While a journeyman, Zenker worked at various companies, including the studio of Sibylle Karrenberg-Dresler (daughter of renowned ceramist Paul Dresler).  In 1963 she founded the Zenker-Karthausen studio community along with Gerburg Karthausen in the town of Solingen in North Rhine-Westphalia.  It operated up until her death in 2010.  In 1971 Zenker was awarded NRW State Prize for ceramics.  Her work is held by museums in numerous German cities (Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frechen, Fredelsloh, Munich, Berlin).