Constable: A Haeger Potteries artist's quest to find his colossal vase

For seven generations, men in the Maglio family turned lumps of clay into works of art in Italy. In 1963, the last of that line, Italian master potter Sebastiano Maglio, closed his two shops in the Sicilian village of Santa Stefan di Camestra and came to Milwaukee so his dressmaker wife, Concetta, could tailor men's suits at J.C. Penney. Sebastiano soon was hired at Haeger Potteries in East Dundee, where he made bowls, vases, bottles, plates, pitchers, candleholders, boxes, figurines and unique sculptures for 32 years until his retirement in 1995.

"Thousands, thousands and thousands," Sebastiano says in English with a rich Italian accent, laughing at the suggestion that he kept count of his works.

"They used to have a room with just his pieces," Concetta says.

"And every one is different," Sebastiano says.

One was so different, it achieved international fame - the "World's Largest Hand-Thrown Vase," which he created in 1976. His feat was touted in "Strano, Ma Vero!" - the Italian version of a "Strange, But True!" column.

Now Sebastiano longs to be reunited with that vase.

"How could I make this vase? I can't believe I made it," the artist says of his colossal work that stands more than 8 feet tall and weighs more than 650 pounds. "I was a young man then."

Haeger Potteries closed last year and its collections, including that vase, went up for auction on Feb. 24 in Chicago. Sebastiano, who turns 84 next month, didn't participate in the auction but in the weeks that followed, the vase's fate lingered in his thoughts: Did it sell? Who bought it? Where is it?

He remembers clearly the day he decided to make the vase.

"I saw a postcard," he says, explaining how it featured a photo of a vase made in 1909 in St. Louis that held the record as World's Largest. "Just a minute, I've got to make it bigger."

He returned to his potter's wheel at Haeger Potteries with the design all in his head.

"I started with 100 pounds of clay," Sebastiano says. "I make this in 16 pieces."

He'd let a layer harden a bit and then add a higher layer.

"If it is too soft, it smashes. If it's too dry it won't stick," Sebastiano says, recalling how he changed his approach depending on the humidity, temperature and whether there was a breeze. At 5-foot-6, Sebastiano had to stand on a chair for the middle layers and bring in a ladder to finish the top.

"It took me one month just to make that vase," he says.

"That's why the vase for him is so special. It's like a baby for him," says his wife of 56 years.

When they got off the boat that brought them to the United States, Concetta was carrying their 8-month-old baby boy, Gaetano, who now goes by Tom. That son now works in human resources, and his younger brother, Angelo, has a job in finance and "they both make more than me," Sebastiano says.

An hourly employee at Haeger, Sebastiano supplemented his income by teaching pottery at Elgin Community College and by giving special demonstrations, generally at department stores, that were written up in newspapers as if they were performance art pieces.

"I can make a bowl in six seconds," he says, recalling how stunned audiences would ooh and ahh at the bowl's appearance as if he were a magician turning a bouquet of flowers into a dove. Yellowed newspaper clippings show him working at a wheel while blindfolded.

"I don't need to look. I can close my eyes and do this," he says. "It's all with feel. Not too dry, not too wet."

Sometimes he would make so many pots during a demonstration that he'd run out of clay. "I'd pick up a vase. 'You don't like this one? OK, I'm going to smash the vase,'" Sebastiano chuckles, recalling how the audience would gasp as he'd roll his art piece into a lump and start over.

His quest to find where that World's Largest vase ended up takes only slightly longer. Told of Sebastiano's pursuit of the vase's whereabouts, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers and the buyers quickly offered to help.

"I would be really, really happy to see it in a museum," Sebastiano says. "Then, I could go see it. My sons could go see it. My grandchildren could go see it."

The vase didn't end up in a museum, but the Maglio family is welcome to see it.

Nancy and Craig Mullenbrock bought the vase at the auction because the designer for that vase was Nancy's uncle, C. Glenn Richardson, who is 87 and lives in Crystal Lake. A Haeger Potteries employee, Richardson also was known for his sketches and paintings.

"My dad is phenomenal with details," says Richardson's daughter, Susan Newman. While Sebastiano carved his name into the base of the vase, Richardson and other artists who worked on the piece signed their names.

"It's out in our living room and it's not going to be moved for some time," says Nancy, who lives in a house with high ceilings in a small town in Ohio. "I grew up in a family of artists and have always had an appreciation for art."

She appreciates the artists, too. Phone numbers have been exchanged, and an invitation offered.

"I would love to meet him," Nancy says of Sebastiano. "We would be glad to have them visit."

Fantastico! So now, this column, as does the precious vase, has a nice, smooth finish.