Three Dodie Thayer pottery lettuce ware tureens, covers and stands, 20th Century

Lady Blue Eyes: Property of Barbara and Frank Sinatra, Sotheby's, New York, 6 December, 2018, lot 51 (part);

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Doris DuBois Thayer Hawthorn—known as Dodie—began in the early 1960s, hand-forming lettuce-leaf ceramics at a modest home workshop. “I wanted to do something creative and I liked working with my hands, so I took up ceramics,” she recalled. Quoted in Marian King, The Greening of Tableware, Palm Beach Daily News.

Her vivid, unmistakable green glaze soon became a social register in itself, gracing the tables of America’s most storied tastemakers. Collectors included the Duchess of Windsor; C.Z. Guest (a group later sold by her daughter, Cornelia Guest, Sotheby’s New York, Oct 17, 2015, lots 500–508, $112,875); Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Sotheby’s New York, Apr 23–26, 1996); and Mary Sayles Booker Braga (Sotheby’s New York, Oct 19–20, 2015, lots 72, 313, 589–590, $76,875). The present tureens formed part of the collection of Barbara and Frank Sinatra, until they were acquired by the present owner at Sotheby's in 2018.

Most recently, a substantial selection featured in The Estate of Mario Buatta: Prince of Interiors (Sotheby’s New York, 23–24 January 2020, lot 202, while a 141-piece service from the private collection of a lady achieved $137,500 at Sotheby’s New York on 12 August 2020, underscoring the enduring appeal and strong market for Dodie Thayer’s iconic lettuce ware.