Mildred Ruth Mottahedeh (née Wurtzel; August 7, 1908 – February 17, 2000) was an American collector of ceramics, businessperson, and philanthropist.

There she met and married Rafi Mottahedeh, and the couple began importing antique porcelain to sell in America.

Around World War II, they shifted their focus to producing reproductions of and original pieces based on antiques.

Mildred Ruth Wurtzel was born on August 7, 1908, in Sea Bright, New Jersey, to Flora Margolius and Jacob B.

[1][2] Her father was the owner of a grocery in Seabright and her mother was the daughter of Joseph Margolius, who owned the Hotel Brighton in Long Branch, New Jersey.

[4] She was educated at the Garfield Avenue School in Long Branch[5] and attended the New Jersey College for Women.

[6] By the time she was thirteen she had moved to New York City and begun to collect Japanese prints after winning one in a contest.

[13] They initially focused on importing antique porcelain, much of it valuable artifacts of the Ming era, as her husband's family shipped crates of china from Tehran.

[18] As a pioneer in the field at a time when many museums frowned upon reproductions, Mottahedeh advocated heavily in favor of them, saying "If we didn't reprint books, look at how much we'd lose in history ...

[21] The couple soon began collecting and selling Chinese export porcelain that had been made between 1600 and the 1870s and eventually added reproductions of that style to their line.

[17] A well-known product of the company was the Mottahedeh "Tobacco Leaf" pattern, based on 18th-century Chinese export porcelains for the Portuguese market, which employed 27 underglaze, enamel colors, and gilding.

[12][15] Mottahedeh focused on the company's designs and the technology and process of their reproductions while her husband managed its finances and the administrative side.

They were based on a plate dating to the late 1700s and featured the goddesses of peace and prosperity, an American eagle and 200 white stars—symbolic of the 200 years since the first inauguration.

[11] Mottahedeh was described in HFD as one of few women prominent in leadership of 'tabletop industry' companies (ones that produced dinnerware, glassware, or silverware).

[19] Mottahedeh was credited with assisting in "revitalizing the brass industry in India"[15] after teaching brass-makers there and in Nepal how to make products that would appeal to American buyers.

[15] Mottahedeh and her husband maintained a private collection of Chinese export porcelain and items made from ivory, jade, and bronze.

[8][26][27] Nelson Rockefeller wrote in the catalogue's introduction that the collection was "utterly fabulous, an artistic and cultural treasure without comparison in its field".

In the mid-1980s, after she was unable to find a museum willing to purchase it, Mottahedeh decided to put some of her collection up for auction through Sotheby's.

She and her husband oversaw the development of four villages in Maharashtra, India[34] and from 1953, they began work in Uganda, after a visit to the nation.

[34] The charity's stated mission was "to do good work in backward countries"[7] by providing funding for social development programs[34] in various nations such as Uganda, Zaire, India, Samoa and Micronesia.

[29] By the following year it had established 24 literacy centers in India and hired professionals to visit around one hundred villages to help them modernize.

[16] In 1987, Portugal granted her the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator after she visited Vista Alegre, one of Mottahedeh & Co.'s subcontractors, to ensure a product of an acceptable quality.

[40] Carl C. Dauterman, a former curator of the Metropolitan Museum's European Decorative Arts program, said that "Mrs. Mottahedeh is one of those rare persons whose careers run in the same channel as their avocations.