This is a photograph of a piece by Marianna von Allesch in my possession. It seems to be a miniature fresco, depicting a Biblical scene. It is inscribed on the back “For Mary M. Blakley From Marianna von Allesch Christmas 1942”

“Mary M. Blakley” is printed and “Marianna von Allesch” is in cursive.

This piece hung in Mary’s house for all the time she lived there – she must have admired Marianna von Allesch a great deal, though she hardly ever spoke of her. The fact that Marianna worked in glass and ceramics must have exerted a profound influence on Mary, because when she finally took up clay in the mid- 1950s, she said that she had found her medium. While she never did glass-blowing, she had an extensive collection of blown glass pieces and used glass in her ceramic work.