Mary Scheier (née Goldsmith) was born in Vienna, Austria, on June 25, 1908, before later emigrating to the United States.
Mary Goldsmith was born on June 25, 1908, in Vienna, Austria, into a family that would later emigrate to the United States. Her early life in Vienna exposed her to the rich artistic and cultural traditions of early 20th-century Central Europe, a milieu steeped in design, craft, and the decorative arts that would later inform her lifelong dedication to ceramics.
Following her family's emigration to America, Mary pursued art education, eventually studying at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, where she met her future husband and creative partner, Edwin Scheier. This meeting would prove pivotal, as together they became one of the most celebrated husband-and-wife teams in American studio pottery.
Her Viennese origins and immigrant experience shaped her perspective as an artist working within American craft traditions, blending European sensibilities with the emerging American studio pottery movement of the mid-20th century. Mary Scheier would go on to become internationally renowned for her hand-built and thrown ceramic vessels, often distinguished by her masterful surface decoration and incising, while Edwin frequently handled sculptural elements. Their combined body of work is held in major museum collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and her birth in Vienna marks the beginning of a life that would bridge two continents and profoundly influence 20th-century American ceramic art.
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