Clarice Cliff was born January, 1899, in Stoke-on-Trent one of England’s hubs for ceramic production, 50 miles north of Birmingham. Her father, worked at an iron foundry. Her mother washed clothes to supplement the family income. They had seven children. After school, Clarice would visit her aunt, a hand-painter who made papier-mâché models for a local pottery company.
When she was 13, Clarice started working in the pottery industry as a gilder, which meant she added gold lines on pottery of traditional design. Later, she learned freehand painting. She studied art and sculpture at the Burslem School of Art, moving to the A. J. Wilkinson factory in 1916, age 17. Cliff acquired skills in modeling figurines and vases, outlining, enameling. Within 3 years, she was given her own studio at the adjoining Newport Pottery. Wow! Cliff’s first productions were called ‘Bizarre’
Bizarre Ware was an immediate success, as the designs – with their abstract, geometric and figural forms – were in the popular Art Deco style and inexpensive. A professional ‘back stamp’ was made: ‘Hand painted Bizarre by Clarice Cliff, Newport Pottery England .
Early pieces were known as Original Bizarre.
In the following years, Cliff added hundreds of patterns to the original range. In 1928 Cliff produced a simple, hand-painted pattern of crocus flowers in orange, blue and purple. It became Cliff’s signature design. Clarice’s career excelled: her team of decorators had grown to 70 young painters, mainly women. Cliff began placing emphasis on the shapes of her pottery, finding different ways to best display her designs.
Images of her pottery dominated women’s magazines. Clarice Cliff’s fame and success in the 1930s are hard to fully appreciate now, but at that time there was no such thing as ‘career women’. The publicity she received in the national press was unprecedented. Despite all the publicity, Cliff was camera shy.
Cliff married her then boss, Colley Shorter, in 1940 and she moved to his Chetwynd House in Staffordshire, a beautiful arts and crafts house.
After his death in 1963, Cliff sold Newport Pottery to Midwinter Pottery, later acquired by Wedgwood. She became reclusive. In the 1970s and 1980s her popularity was revived, leading to worldwide collectability and establishing Cliff as one of the key names of the Art Deco movement. Cliff’s work continues to be esteemed and sought after by Art Deco ceramic collectors.
In October, 1972, Clarice Cliff died suddenly at Chetwynd House.
Clarice Cliff’s work continues to be esteemed and sought after by Art Deco ceramic collectors.
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