Eva Zeisel, groundbreaking designer, dies

Mrs. Zeisel was widely regarded as a master of modern design.

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Mrs. Zeisel created everyday objects that fundamentally changed the look of American kitchens and dining rooms.

Talisman K Brolin /

Here is a detail of the sauceboat or vase from Mrs. Zeisel's Tomorrow's Classic, 1949-50.

John Paschal

May 23, 2005

Mrs. Zeisel was widely regarded as a master of modern design. Her salt and pepper shakers, creamers and ladles are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

John Paschal

“All of my work is mother-and-child,” Mrs. Zeisel once said.

/ Courtesy of KleinReid

Mrs. Zeisel often said that her work was about the “playful search for beauty.” Here is a prototype for Modular Ceramic Wall Dividers.

Brent C. Brolin

She brought “a trained designer’s eye and touch to the kind of inexpensive daily goods that were available to everyone,” said Karen Kettering, vice president for Russian art at Sotheby’s and a former curator at the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in the District, which featured a retrospective of Mrs. Zeisel’s work in 2005.

Susan Biddle / The Washington Post

Shown are metal alloy Nambe vases designed by Eva Zeisel.

Cary Conover / For The Washington Post

Eva Zeisel is shown in her studio in her country house.

Cary Conover / For The Washington Post

A tableware collection from the 1950s was re-released several years ago by Crate and Barrel.

/ Courtesy of KleinReid

Her bowls were not meant to be stacked but rather to nestle together. Big spoons could be seen as protecting smaller ones.

/ Lucie Young

Eva Zeisel wearing a silk wrap designed by an artist friend, about 1929.

/ Family photo

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