Vally Wieselthier

[1] Valerie Wieselthier was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria.

She attended the Wiener Frauenakademie [de] in Vienna from 1912 to 1914 and studied at the Vienna School of Applied Arts with Rosalinda Rothhansl, Kolo Moser, Josef Hoffmann, and Michael Powolny from 1914 to 1920.

From 1922 to 1927, she ran her own ceramic workshop in cooperation with the Augarten porcelain factory, which was newly founded in 1923, but also with other companies such as Friedrich Goldscheider, Gmundner Keramik [de; hu] and J.

Her expressive and humorous porcelain figures attracted attention at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et industriels modern in Paris in 1925 and are considered typical examples of the Art Deco style.

In 1933, she moved to Chicago with Paul Lester Wiener and worked as a designer for the Contempora Group and the Sebring Pottery Company.