Pair of Bookends
Mary Stainbank
Earthenware
1932
Purchase
1671/93
Mary Stainbank (b.1899 Bellair, Natal d.1996 Durban)
Mary Stainbank trained at the Durban School of Art (1916-21) under John Adams and Alfred Martin, and from 1922-24 at the Royal College of Art, London, under William Rothenstein (1872-1945) and Frederick John Wilcoxson. She was awarded a Royal College scholarship in 1925 and studied bronze casting at an engineering firm in London. On her return to South Africa in 1926 she set up a studio at Bellair. After war service from 1939-45 she was appointed Head of the Sculpture Department at the Durban School of Art, where she lectured until 1957. She exhibited widely in South Africa and abroad and undertook many sculptural commissions, particularly for buildings.