Clarice Cliff
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Clarice Cliff (January 20, 1899 - October 23, 1972), was a ceramic artist active from 1922 to 1940.
Clarice was born in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, England. At the age of 13 she started working in the potteries. She studied at the Burslem School of Art in the evenings.
Her first job was as a gilder, and once she had mastered this she changed jobs to learn freehand painting at another potbank, then moved to A.J. Wilkinson's in 1916, to improve her chances of becoming a modeller.
This was an unusual start to an unusual career, most 'pottery girls' mastered a particular task and then stayed with that to maximise their income as they were paid by the piece. However, Clarice was ambitious and prepared to take wage reductions to start at the bottom to acquire a new skill, in the process acquiring a wide range of expertise including outlining, tube lining, enamelling, banding and modelling.
Eventually Clarice's wide range of abilities were recognised, and she was given an opportunity to decorate some of the factory's defective 'glost' (white) ware in her own freehand patterns. She covered the imperfections in simple patterns of triangles, vividly coloured in a style that was to become known as 'Original Bizarre'. To the surprise of the company's salesmen, this was immediately popular. She was provided with her own studio and another painter to assist, but this rapidly expanded to a team of around 70 young painters, mainly women but four boys - they hand painted the wares under her direction.
Between 1928 and 1936 she evolved a new range called Fantasque which featured cottages and trees, and then many Art Deco inspired patterns. These have proven particularly collectible nowadays. Through the depths of the Depression her wares continued to sell in volume at what were high prices for the time. Her Bizarre and Fantasque ware was sold throughout the world, North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, but not in mainland Europe. In Britain many top London stores sold it, including Harrod's, but never Woolworths as some have stated.
In 1930 she was appointed Art Director on Newport Pottery and A. J. Wilkinson's, the two adjoining factories that produced her wares. Her work involved spending more time with the factory owner Colley Shorter, and this gradually developed into an affair, conducted in secrecy. In 1940, after the death of Ann Shorter, Colley's wife, they married and Clarice moved into the Shorter home, Chetwynd House, where she developed a strong interest in the extensive gardens.
During World War Two only plain white pottery was permitted under wartime regulations, so Clarice assisted with management of the pottery but was not able to continue design work.
After the war, most production went to the US market where the taste was for formal ware in traditional English designs, rather than the striking patterns and shapes that had established Clarice's reputation. Thus she was never able to return to creative work. A.J.Wilkinson and their Newport Pottery continued to sell ware under Clarice’s name until 1964 when the factory was sold to Midwinter who also continued to use the 'Clarice Cliff' brand on some pieces.
Clarice's earliest Bizarre pieces pieces from 1927 are the traditional shapes decorated in strongly geometric patterns of diamonds and triangles in bold contrasting colours, and now called 'Original Bizarre'. This early ware is usually stamped 'Bizarre' and sells for moderately high prices at auction.
By 1929 Clarice was designing her own shapes, often very angular and high Art Deco.
Abstract and cubist patterns appeared on these, such as Ravel, seen on Clarice's Conical shape ware.
Clarice's are highly stylised and interpreted in strong colours, such as the 'Honolulu' pattern.
Typically stamped 'Bizarre' or 'Fantasque', rare combinations of shape and pattern can attract very high prices at auction. By 1935 tastes had changed and the 'My Garden' series
had become popular, with more rounded shapes, often with small flowers modelled as a handle or foot and only these were painted in detail.
Other series from this period include 'Harvest' which has detailed modeling,
. This late 1930s ware attracts relatively low prices at auction, though becoming more valuable.
After the second world war, although Clarice had less creative input into the ware her 'Clarice Cliff' mark was frequently added to the standard ranges made by the factory. This postwar ware has little value at auction.
In 1972, the first Clarice Cliff exhibition took place at Brighton, East Sussex, for which she provided comments for the catalogue. Later that year Clarice died suddenly at Chetwynd House. This exhibition marked the start of a major revival of interest in Clarice's work, which has continued to be sought after by Art Deco Ceramic collectors. Such was the interest that the Clarice Cliff Collectors Club was founded in 1982 [1] which celebates its 25th Anniversary in 2006.
A chain of mergers eventually led to Wedgwood owning the Clarice Cliff name, and in the early 1990s they produced a range of reproductions of the highly sought 1930s Deco pieces. These were made to a high quality, and were produced in small numbers for sale to collectors who could not find (or perhaps could not afford) the most striking original pieces.
These hand painted collectors pieces ceased production in 2002 and are now acquiring significant values at auction. Other pieces were made in larger quantities with printed (not hand painted) patterns, and these are also starting to be sought at auction. These reproductions should not be confused with forgeries (of which a number are found), the Wedgwood ones are clearly marked as 'Wedgwood Clarice Cliff' and were produced by the current holder of the copyright.
1999 saw the centenary celebrations of Clarice's life and work. This featured the ‘Bizarre Art of Clarice Cliff’ exhibition at the Wedgwood Visitors Centre, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent. This was linked to the centenary book 'Art of Bizarre' by Leonard Griffin (Chrysalis boooks). A biography by Lynn Knight was published in 2005.
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[edit] External links
- The Clarice Cliff Web Site Information and links.
- The Clarice Cliff Collectors Club (Founded 1982) Biographical details, exhibition information and links to images of her designs.
- Stoke-on-Trent Museums See Clarice Cliff's designs, plus the World's Finest Collection of Staffordshire Ceramics at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.
- Clarice Cliff Pictorial Histories
