In 1925 Bufano had a solo show at the Arden Galleries in New York City, he was featured in "International Studio" magazine, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired his ceramic sculpture "Honeymoon Couple". That year he also met Virginia Howard in San Francisco, fell in love, followed her when she went to Louisiana, and married her in Texas. They spent a few weeks in Pasadena and then embarked on a trip around the world, visiting Japan, China, Southeast Asia, and India, then Italy and France. By the time they arrived in France the marriage was failing, and when she became pregnant, he sent her home to California. The baby was born on August 16, 1928, and Virginia named him Erskine Scott Bufano after their benefactor Charles Erskine Scott Wood. She learned that her husband had earlier had a common-law wife named Marie Jones (née Linder) and a daughter named Aloha M. Jones-Bufano. She divorced him in 1931.