Clarice Cliff History Guide

Clarice Cliff  History Guide

Clarice Cliff was a very skilled and accomplished designer. But most importantly, she skillfully utilised the latest fashions, styles and art movements that came from France - the centre of style and good design - and mixed them with an English perspective that hadn't really been done before.

Clarice Cliff  Style

Clarice Cliff was born into a working class family in 1899. After a number of jobs in various factories, she gained a position at A.J. Wilkinson's Ltd. This large, international company would later provide her with an opportunity to make a name for herself. Starting as a decorator, she was soon recognised as being able to do more than just copy patterns designed by other people, and she was moved to the design studio.







Clarice visited the important Paris exhibition in 1925, which clearly made a lasting impression on her and made her realise that British pottery was very dull. This gave her the idea to create a new look. Her boss, Colley Shorter, was a successful and astute businessman and allowed her to experiment on a stock of inferior ware that came with the purchase of the Newport Pottery in 1920. Clarice Cliff, with her team of decorators, developed brightly coloured patterns that were thickly painted to cover
the defects on the ware.

Clarice Cliff  History Guide

This new range was called Bizarre and caused a sensation with the trade, and soon became a sell out with many new orders being placed by some of the most well-known pottery stores across the country and eventually in Australia, South Africa and other similar countries.







The company commenced a very successful advertising campaign that included stylish advertisements in women's magazines and the creation of the Bizooka-a horse made up of her pottery! This creation went along with her team of decorators, known affectionately as the 'Bizarre Girls', to London and other important cities to demonstrate their painting skills in shop windows. This caused a great deal of publicity.

Clarice Cliff  History Guide

No sooner had Bizarre proved popular, that Clarice realised that she needed new patterns and shapes to meet the demand for her work. She created the Conical shape in 1932 and later Stanford and Bonjour.

Clarice Cliff  History Guide

Many of her Art Deco patterns featured landscapes scenes such as the highly sought-after Trees and, House, Red Roofs, Summerhouse and Blue  Autumn whilst the Melon, Sliced Circle and Tennis were more abstract but just as popular. In 1929 she introduced the Fantasque range with the first patterns including Broth and Caprice. She also created more subtle patterns typified by her Crocus pattern; a simple floral design introduced in 1929 that was a best seller for over 30 years.

Clarice Cliff  History Guide

Later on during the 1930s, Clarice changed her style by introducing several moulded lines typified by the My Garden range that encompassed vases, bowls, trays, candlesticks and fancies decorated with moulded flowers and fruits on the handles and on the base of each piece. Other examples included Celtic Harvest and Waterlily.

Clarice Cliff  History Guide

Following WW2, the company introduced the production of dinnerware using the 'Royal Staffordshire' mark, chiefly targeting the export market. By far the most popular pattern on the North American market was Tonquin, a traditional landscape print that is much sought-after by American collectors today and was soon followed by the Chelsea Basket, Rttral Scenes and Harvest patterns.

Clarice Cliff  History Guide

Following the death of Colley Shorter, who she had married in the 1940s, the works were eventually sold in 1963 to WR. Midwinter Ltd. The factory was sold in December 1964. In 1972 the Brighton Museum staged the first exhibition of her work and the designer provided notes. Sadly, Clarice Cliff died in 1972 before she could see her innovative and fashionable work become the best-known and one of the most sought-after ceramics .