Schreckengost, famed industrial designer of toys, White House porcelain, dies at age 101

Artist and designer Viktor Schreckengost poses in the living room of his Cleveland Heights, Ohio home in this June 12, 2006 file photo. MARK DUNCAN
From Associated Press
January 27, 2008 5:57 PM EST
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Viktor Schreckengost, an artist and prolific industrial designer whose ubiquitous works ranged from familiar toys and White House porcelain to innovative trucks and even lawn mowers, has died. He was 101.

Schreckengost died Saturday while visiting family in Tallahassee, Florida, said Brenda Jackson of the Viktor Schreckengost Foundation on Sunday.

Schreckengost, a 2006 winner of the National Medal of Arts, was best known for his 1930s "Jazz Bowl" series, commissioned by Eleanor Roosevelt for the White House. The electric blue and black porcelain bowls, inspired by the sights and sounds of New York City, became icons of the Art Deco era.


Schreckengost incorporated fine design into mass-produced goods in an effort to make aesthetically pleasing, functional items available to everyone. His industrial designs include bicycles sold by Sears, iconic children's pedal wagons, lawn chairs, sit-down lawn mowers and even American Limoges dinnerware.

"It's function. That's what I was always attracted to," Schreckengost told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview. "You get to the basic form first and then the color and texture and all the other stuff added to it so it becomes very complicated, even though it appears simple."

His innovations spanned several industries. He helped design the first cab-over-engine truck in 1932 for the White Motor Co., which increased hauling capacity. He was lead designer for bicycles and toy pedal cars for the Murray Ohio Co. from 1938 to 1972, and designed printing presses for the Harris-Seybold and Chandler Harris companies.


Schreckengost was born in 1906 in Sebring, a commercial pottery town near Youngstown, Ohio. He studied ceramics at the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna, and taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art in the early 1930s.

During World War II, he joined the Navy, where he was recruited to develop a system for radar recognition which won him a commendation from the Secretary of the Navy.

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On the Net:

http://www.viktorschreckengost.org/

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