Born and educated in Hungary, Eva Zeisel had previously designed ceramics in Europe, including the USSR, where she was imprisoned for 18 months following a Stalinist purge. Deported to Vienna in 1937, she also narrowly escaped arrest by invading Nazi forces before fleeing to New York. This ceramic service, commissioned by MoMA and Castleton China, was the focus of MoMA’s first one-woman exhibition, in 1946, kick-starting Zeisel’s illustrious career as an American industrial designer.