NEHMA | Collection - Rose Cabat

Rose Cabat

American, (1914–2015)

Rose Katz was born in Bronx, New York, and married Ernest “Erni” Cabat in 1936. She began working in ceramics in 1940, after her husband brought home some clay from his job as an assistant to an Austrian potter and sculptor. This sparked a passion that continued unabated for the rest of her life. She learned how to use a potter’s wheel at Greenwich House Pottery in New York. In 1942 the couple moved to Arizona, where Rose made coil pots until Erni was able to convert a washing machine into a potter’s wheel. Eventually, she acquired a Randall kick wheel, which she used to the end of her life. Erni ran the business and weighed out the glaze components, while Rose was the creative artist. She continued to work in her Tucson studio until the end of her life, averaging five pots per day. In 2015 she was the oldest known practicing pottery artist in the United States.