DON REITZ Rare Salt Glazed Studio Pottery Stoneware Bowl Plate Platter Modern

Description

Hello and welcome!
Up for sale is this Very Quality Rare Salt Glazed Handmade Piece by The Incredibly Talented Potter Don Reitz. He was a very well known American ceramic artist, known for his works and he was recognized for inspiring a reemergence of salt glaze pottery in the United States. He was born on November 7th, 1929 and recently passed on March 19th, 2014 (84 years old). His passing has made such an impact he was eulogized by The New York Times and the American Craft Council. His works are featured in several museums including the Smithsonian Institution, American Museum of Ceramic Art, and Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. His work is becoming more and more rare since his passing, and they do not show up too often for sale. I am unsure of the date this piece was made. It's quite difficult to find out when he was making this style of bowl he has several examples but I was unable to find any matches of this particular style.
This is a hand thrown piece. It's a platter/wide bowl with 2 crimped edges on the backside, finished with a thick glaze using the salt glaze method. The bottom is boldly scribed with his mark, "Reitz" with an underline. This is an excellent quality piece of his work. It has no chips anywhere on the piece. It does appear to have 2 small firing cracks on the inside of the bowl underneath both ends of the folding of the crimped edges shown best in photo #8. Photo #8 shows the larger crack. The one on the other side is much smaller. This happened most likely because the acute angle of the folded edges had put pressure on that area along with the heat making it crack slightly. The cracks are only on the insides of the bowl. They do not penetrate to the other sides so they are surface cracks. it's still a very strong, durable piece it does not affect the structural integrity of the piece. It's very heavy, weighing 3lbs and 10.8oz on my scale. The dimensions of this piece are approximately 12"L x 10 3/4"W x 2.5"-3"H.
This item will come with free fully insured shipping and be double boxed for an extra safe travel. An optional signature for arrival is also included.
If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a message and I'll do my best to help.
Sources: Wikipedia, Google