Jane Heald Mid-Century Very Fine Gray-Brown Pottery Weed Pot micmac curlicue basket The hand-painted design--really a drawing

The hand-painted design--really a drawing on clay--reminds me of a  map with shape-shifting land masses

I am pretty certain this lacquered papier mache box was made to be used as a snuff box and dates to the late 19th or very early 20th century

" an international exposition at the 1934 Chicago World's Fair

which I purchased (along with a stunning architectural whimsy) from a terrific dealer at Todd Farm Flea Market in Rowley

plus he has these finely and emphatically painted eyebrows

Jane Heald Mid-Century Very Fine Gray-Brown Pottery Weed Pot micmac curlicue basket The hand-painted design--really a drawingThere is not a lot out there about Jane Heald, the Pacific Palisades, CA potter (1916 1991) who created this gorgeous lilttle vase, which photos don't do justice, but an interview with Vivika Heino mentions her as being part of a workshop at UCLA, in 1953, taught by Shoji Hamada and Bernard Leach, and notes that Heald, being the only one in the group with her own high fire kiln, fired pots for everyone in the workshop, including Hamada and Leach.