The story of the famous punch bowl called the Jazz bowl is well-known. The very large bright blue and black punch bowl was made by Viktor Schreckengost while he was working part-time at Cowan Pottery in Rocky River, Ohio.

In 1930, he was assigned to create a punch bowl with a “New York-ish” theme. He thought it should look like the excitement of jazz music, so he covered it with black pictures of a cocktail party, Times Square, Cotton Club, Radio City Music Hall, streetlights, skyscrapers and the word Jazz. He didn’t know the order was from Eleanor Roosevelt who soon ordered two more bowls. Cowan made more than 50 more bowls to sell. The design on some was scratched into the clay (etched) then glazed in bright blue and black. There were also others that were just painted. And there were originally four different named designs sold. “New Yorker” (the original Jazz bowl), “Night Club,” “Rhythm in Blue” and “Cocktails & Cigarettes.” A reproduction series was made to celebrate Viktor’s 100th birthday in 2006. He died two years later. An original jazz bowl sold for $254,400 in 2004. On March 23, 2019, one sold from Brunk Auctions for $45,600.

I went to the production facility to see the work on the reproductions. There were two original shapes, the first with a straight side, the second with a turned out lip that was less expensive. A group of artists were painting or etching copies of the original designs. The reproduced bowls were high priced. In 2010, the copies were $19,500 for the straight-sided (parabolic) bowl and $17,500 for the flared bowl. The plan was to raise the price as the bowls sold and there were fewer left for customers. The project stopped recasting in 2012 and no more copies were made.