Large Porcelain "Balloon" Vase by Jonathan Adler
By Jonathan Adler
Located in San Diego, CA
A lovely unglazed white mat porcelain "Balloon" vase by Jonathan Adler, circa 2000s.
Porcelain
Medium Porcelain "Balloon" Vase by Jonathan Adler
By Jonathan Adler
Located in San Diego, CA
A lovely unglazed white mat porcelain "Balloon" vase by Jonathan Adler, circa 2000s.
Porcelain
$341Sale Price|20% Off
Vintage Porcelain & Marble Horn Sculpture by Jonathan Adler
By Jonathan Adler
Located in Skarpnäck, SE
Jonathan Adler White Porcelain & Marble Horn Sculpture — Handmade Modern Decorative Object A striking handmade porcelain and marble horn sculpture by celebrated American designer Jo...
Marble
Jonathan Adler “Dora Maar Muse” Porcelain Planters — Set of Three
By Jonathan Adler
Located in San Diego, CA
Details: Designer: Jonathan Adler Model: Dora Maar Muse planter Circa: 2010s Material: Glazed porcelain Dimensions (each): 4.5 in. diameter × 4 in. height Marked on underside: “Muse...
Porcelain
$400Sale Price / set|20% Off
Pair of "Salvador" Vases" by Jonathan Adler
By Jonathan Adler
Located in San Diego, CA
A lovely pair of unglazed white mat porcelain "Salvador" vases by Jonathan Adler, circa 2000s .
Porcelain
$380Sale Price / set|20% Off
Pair of Gold Ceramic Bird Bowls from"Menagerie Collection" by Jonathan Adler
By Jonathan Adler
Located in San Diego, CA
A lovely pair of bright gold ceramic bird bowls from the "Menagerie Collection" by Jonathan Adler, circa 1980s . The set is in very good condition with no chips or cracks; the large...
Porcelain
$415 / item
Dora Maar Urn
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Porcelain Reverie. Our Dora Maar Urn gives good face from every angle, an unglazed finish highlighting the muse's flawless features in fabulously delicate detail. Inspired by Dora Ma...
Porcelain
Vintage Porcelain Nautical Tray Made in France
By Jean Paul Gaultier, Ralph Lauren, Jonathan Adler
Located in San Diego, CA
This vintage porcelain tray brings a playful yet polished sensibility to any setting, effortlessly balancing charm and sophistication. Crafted with a smooth, high-gloss finish, the p...
Porcelain
$148Sale Price|26% Off
Vintage Bjorn Wiindblad Decorative Plate 1001 Nights Lute Player Plate
By Bjørn Wiinblad, Jonathan Adler, Rosenthal
Located in San Diego, CA
Beautiful collectible plate from the famous Danish artist Bjorn Wiinblad (Bjørn Wiinblad). The plate was designed for Rosenthal, Germany and is decorated in saturated jewel tones on ...
Gold Leaf
Vintage Jamie Young Trio of Porcelain Vases with Tray - Set of 4
By R & Y Augousti, Jamie Young, Bitossi, Jonathan Adler, Maitland Smith
Located in Miami, FL
Offering a vintage contemporary trio of porcelain vases with original porcelain tray, set of four. These unique contemporary Organic Modern porcelain vases include the circular porce...
Ceramic
Jonathan Adler 'Icons' Porcelain Coasters, Set of 4
By Jonathan Adler
Located in Richmond, VA
Listed is a fabulous, set of 4, Jonathan Adler porcelain coasters. The set includes all four 'Icons': Judy, Mary, Nancy, and Barbara.
Gold
Gin Rocket Decanter
By Jonathan Adler
Located in Napa, CA
White porcelain with black, gold, and silver decal and 16-karat gold detailing.
Porcelain
Vintage 1970s Neiman Marcus Malachite Porcelain Plates 'Set of 10'
By Tiffany & Co., Jonathan Adler, Neiman Marcus
Located in San Diego, CA
Iconic set of porcelain china in malachite. This set of 10 includes 2 dinner plates, 4 salad plates and 4 dessert plates. 1970s glamour at your table. This china set is not only beau...
Porcelain
Geisha Porcelain Bust
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
A whisper of Giacometti, a hint of Brancusi, a nod to Japan, and a heap of sculptural hair. Our matte porcelain Geisha Sculpture is dynamic from every angle—abstracted, elongated, el...
Porcelain
Versailles Porcelain Urn
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Formal, fresh, and futuristic. Traditional shapes, graphic patterns, and gobs of gold conspire to create this classic meets cutting edge collection. Our signature cubes pattern is dy...
Gold
Large Dora Maar Porcelain Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Porcelain Reverie. Inspired by Dora Maar, the French photographer, poet, and painter best known for being a lover and muse of Pablo Picasso. Jonathan throws the models for the Muse v...
Porcelain, Pottery
Versailles Porcelain Hex Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Pattern play. Featuring signature patterns dynamically deconstructed for a 21st century twist, our classic-meets-cutting edge collection treats graphic greatness to gobs of gold. Our...
Gold
Versailles Porcelain Maze Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Pattern Play. Featuring signature patterns dynamically deconstructed for a 21st century twist, our classic-meets-cutting edge collection treats graphic greatness to gobs of gold. Our...
Gold
Versailles Porcelain Maze Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Pattern Play. Featuring signature patterns dynamically deconstructed for a 21st century twist, our classic-meets-cutting edge collection treats graphic greatness to gobs of gold. Our...
Gold
Botanist 'Specimen' Gilded Porcelain Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Natural selections. Observe the science of chic. Limited-quantity editions, our Botanist vessels elevate your everyday look at leaf and wing. Glossy high-fired porcelain wrapped in s...
Gold Leaf
Dora Maar Porcelain Table Lamp
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Porcelain Reverie. A tabletop glow that gives good face from every angle. Topped with a grey silk shade, our signature matte porcelain muse features polished nickel details. Inspired...
Silk, Porcelain
Gilded Porcelain Atlas Split Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Great Divide. A surreal head-turner, our Atlas Split Vase features four dual looks—each flawlessly halved visage reveals a matte porcelain profile from one angle, and a glittering go...
Gold Leaf
Botanist 'Ganja' Gilded Porcelain Urn
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Natural Selections. Observe the science of chic. Limited-quantity editions, our Botanist vessels elevate your everyday look at leaf and wing. Glossy high-fired porcelain wrapped in s...
Gold Leaf
Gala Lips Porcelain Table Lamp
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Conversation Piece. Inspired by Gala, wife and muse of Salvador Dali, an expressive collection of moody mouths wrap our high-fired unglazed porcelain lamp. Beguiling in rest or playf...
Brass
Carnaby Black and Grey Porcelain Table Lamp
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Graphic Pop. A classic cubes pattern in black and grey with gold accents for a spot of sparkle. Our porcelain and polished brass Carnaby Lamp combines a dash of downtown with a touch...
Brass
Dora Maar Centerpiece Pedestal Bowl
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Serve Surrealism. Our larger-than-life Dora Maar Centerpiece Pedestal Bowl is the grand head-turner every dining experience deserves. Inspired by Dora Maar, the French photographer, ...
Porcelain
Lips Trinket Tray
By Jonathan Adler
Located in Napa, CA
High-fired porcelain with gold accents.
Porcelain
Small Paradox Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in Napa, CA
High-fired matte porcelain exterior, glazed interior.
Porcelain
Medium Paradox Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in Napa, CA
High-fired matte porcelain exterior, glazed interior.
Porcelain
Fornasetti Wall Plate Tema E Variazioni N. 221
By Jonathan Adler, Fornasetti
Located in San Diego, CA
Beautiful wall plate with the interpretation of opera singer Lina Cavalieri’s face are the basis of the iconic Tema e Variazioni series by Fornasetti. Beautiful hand-decorated porce...
Porcelain
Jonathan Adler Santorini Pandora Box
By Jonathan Adler
Located in Miami, FL
A pill shaped yellow porcelain trinket jewelry box with gold accents and white interior, by Jonathan Adler.
Porcelain
Vodka Rocket Decanter
By Jonathan Adler
Located in Napa, CA
White porcelain with black, gold, and silver decal and 16-karat gold detailing.
Porcelain
Gala Lips Porcelain Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Conversation piece. An expressive collection of moody mouths wrap a vessel crafted from high-fired unglazed porcelain exterior with a glazed interior. A kiss of cool for your table, ...
Porcelain
Gala Lips Porcelain Column Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Conversation Piece. An expressive collection of moody mouths wrap an oversized vessel crafted from high-fired unglazed porcelain with a glazed interior. Beguiling in rest or playfull...
Porcelain
Versailles Porcelain Hex Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Pattern play. Featuring signature patterns dynamically deconstructed for a 21st century twist, our classic-meets-cutting edge collection treats graphic greatness to gobs of gold. Our...
Gold
Versailles Porcelain Puzzle Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Pattern Play. Featuring signature patterns dynamically deconstructed for a 21st century twist, our classic-meets-cutting edge collection treats graphic greatness to gobs of gold. Our...
Gold
Botanist 'Specimen' Gilded Porcelain Vase
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Natural selections. Observe the science of chic. Limited-quantity editions, our Botanist vessels elevate your everyday look at leaf and wing. Glossy high-fired porcelain wrapped in s...
Gold Leaf
Carnaby Red and Blue Porcelain Table Lamp
By Jonathan Adler
Located in New York, NY
Graphic Pop. A Classic cubes pattern in black and grey or navy and red with gold accents for a spot of sparkle. Our porcelain and polished brass Carnaby Lamp combines a dash of Downt...
Brass
Potter-turned-home-design guru Jonathan Adler is a man with a peripatetic mind, inspired in equal parts, it seems, by classic modern design, Surrealism and pop culture.
Although his namesake company has expanded into a mini empire touching just about every aspect of modern living — chairs and ice buckets, wallpaper and menorahs, chandeliers and rugs — made in myriad materials, Adler still creates almost every object in clay first. His guiding principle is a simple one: “I make the stuff I want to surround myself with, and I surround myself with it.”
Adler grew up in a New Jersey farm town. His grandfather became a local judge, and his father returned home after graduating from the University of Chicago. “My pop was a brilliantly talented artist. At one point, he had to decide whether to become an artist or a —,” he pauses, searching for the right word, “person.” His father became a lawyer but spent all his free time in his studio, “making art, unencumbered by the need to make money from it. It was a totally pure pursuit.” Adler’s mother, who had worked at Vogue and moved to the rural town reluctantly, was also creative, and both parents encouraged their three children’s creativity.
When he was 12, Adler went to sleepaway camp, where he threw his first pot. “And it was on,” he says. His parents bought him a pottery wheel, and he spent the remainder of his adolescence elbow-deep in clay. Even while majoring in semiotics and art history at Brown University, he hung out at the nearby Rhode Island School of Design, making pots.
Adler moved to New York City, worked briefly in entertainment, and in 1993 returned to his true love, throwing pots (in exchange for teaching classes) at a Manhattan studio called Mud Sweat & Tears. One day, at Balducci’s food market, he ran into Bill Sofield, an old friend who had recently cofounded, with Thomas O’Brien, the now-legendary Aero Studios, a design firm and shop. Sofield paid a studio visit and promptly gave him an order. Then, another friend introduced Adler to a buyer at Barneys New York, who also wrote an order.
For about three years after Adler began devoting himself to ceramics full-time. Despite the street cred of both Aero and Barneys, he also wasn’t really making enough money to live on. Then, in 1997, he teamed with Aid to Artisans, a nonprofit aimed at creating economic opportunity for skilled artisans in developing countries, and traveled to Peru to hire potters who could follow his designs, thus increasing production.
Adler’s first store opened in 1998, in the Soho shopping mecca in Manhattan. He now operates about two dozen shops, as far-flung as London and Bangkok. During Adler’s trip to Peru, he connected not only with potters but also with several talented weavers and decided to branch out into textiles. Other categories followed, leading him to travel the world in search of artisans who could execute his endless supply of ideas. In India, Adler found a man who’s expert at beadwork; he has his limed furniture made in Indonesia, his honey-colored wood pieces in Vietnam.
After a friend asked him to decorate her house, Adler expanded to interior design, taking on hotels as well as private residences — projects for which he remains “agnostic,” using pieces by other designers. “I really try to get to know my clients and then make them seem more glamorous and more eccentric than they think,” he says. “I see myself as a slimming mirror for them.”
Find Jonathan Adler seating, case pieces, decorative objects and other furniture on 1stDibs.