Reduction-Fired Stoneware Box Duo – Mario Enke Studio Pottery, 2010

Studio ceramic box duo by Mario Enke, made in high-fired stoneware with reduction glazes and two distinct surface treatments. One piece pairs a warm brown body with an iron-red lid, while the other is finished in layered green tones with concentric ridging, giving the set a grounded, tactile presence shaped by firing, glaze, and form.

• Dimensions:
  
  • Red / brown box: H 20 cm, Dia. 13 cm
    
  • Green box: H 15 cm, Dia. 17 cm
• Material: Stoneware
  
• Designer: Mario Enke
  
• Color: Iron-red, brown, and green
  
• Condition: Very good condition; green box free from damage with minimal handling traces; red-lidded box with a professionally stabilized hairline crack to the lid, visible on close inspection but stable for display
  
• Era: 2010
  
• Origin: Germany
  
• Remarks: Set of two; reduction-fired stoneware; partially re-oxidized and etched surfaces

Place the two together on a console, shelf, or low table so the difference in color and texture reads clearly. Keep the setting simple and let the lids, glaze shifts, and surface detail do the work.

Mario Enke (b. 1948) trained as a master potter in Bürgel (Thuringia), one of Germany’s historically significant ceramic centres, and has maintained an independent studio practice since the mid-1970s. He operated his own workshop in Kienwerder near Potsdam from 1976 to 1993 and has worked since then from Lindaunis in Schleswig-Holstein. Enke has been a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (AIC, Geneva) since 1985 and was associated with professional ceramic education and master training during the 1970s and 1980s. His work has been exhibited in specialist galleries, including a notable solo presentation at Galerie Theis in 1990, and is documented in ceramic archives and authority files relating to German studio pottery. 1991 he became a member of the exclusive and renowned Ceramics Group '83. While never aligned with industrial production or academic formalism, Enke’s oeuvre is well regarded within specialist ceramic circles and appears regularly on the international secondary market.