The famous ceramics designer Clarice Cliff was born in 1899. Clarice’s unique work came to be known in the late 1920’s when she was given permission to decorate blank earthenware discarded by the managers at the Wilkinson Pottery. Taking blank vases and plates she decorated these objects with simple geometric designs and painted them in her vivid red, blue and yellow palette that would become her trademark, instantly recognisable by collectors. Over the next ten years, as her confidence grew, she developed more complex landscape and geometric patterns that displayed her love of the Art Deco movement.

Clarice Cliff Vase

As well as using a distinctive and immediately recognisable palette, Clarice developed ever more bizarre and eye catching shapes for both table and decorative ware. Sometimes the shapes were not practical, as when the Conical sugar sifter, with its large vents, flooded sugar into the unsuspecting users cup of tea and the Stamford teapot with its early squared off spout did not pour well - but they were a breath of fresh air to the traditional market that still relied on the best silver teapot and china for special occasions. In a period that saw a new generation of wealthy and fashion conscious buyers the bright ceramics were highly popular. Clarice’s designs were not, as is often quoted, retailed through cheap stores but were marketed as ‘Bizarre’ by Clarice Cliff at the major Department stores throughout Britain. They began with a group of traditional shapes previously used by the Wilkinson potteries, such as the Lotus jug which was originally part of a wash basin set and other simple bowls and plates. The success of these items led to experimentation with new shapes and form. Her new found confidence as a designer led to radical shapes and designs such as the squared shape of the Stamford teapot, the Conical sugar sifter and the Bonjour jug. One of her major breakthrough designs was this Conical sugar sifter, a simple cone shape that was easy to decorate in her growing range of patterns. Clarice took this shape, turned it upside down and added a base to produce a conical vase and after this was mastered she joined two cone shapes together, back to back, forming one of her most daring designs, the Yo-Yo vase. Now she produced many cutting edge shapes that were difficult to fire, with numerous rejects caused by sagging in the kiln. This and the items fragile nature make these elaborate shapes rare survivors today.

Clarice also developed vases out of a series of tubes and flat slabs of earthenware. These were also technically difficult to fire with the different densities of the material causing further warping and firing faults. One of these vases was called the ‘Liner’ vase, named for its similarity to the bow of the great Ocean liners of the period. Such vases with their complex joints were also prone to damage. The complexity of some of these shapes proved awkward for Clarice’s ‘Bizarre Girls’ (her growing band of young female painters) to apply the ever more daring designs to. The landscape designs now had to bend around right angle corners or taper to a point, and had to be equally suitable for large 18 inch chargers or tiny sugar basins. Her girls took up Clarice’s challenge with vigour with the whole pattern being painted on lids, feet or even inside the small conical sugar basins. It is these examples with their brilliant decoration that are treasured by collectors today with perfect examples fetching high prices at auction.

The avant-garde shapes and patterns that now regularly fetch thousands of pounds were only possible to produce due to the popularity of her main ranges of Crocus and Gay Day. These designs sold in quantity and gave Clarice the free hand to experiment. These experiments also led to unique patterns being sent around the world with some patterns such as ‘Seven Colour Secrets’ retailed in South Africa and Australia – where they are today more common than in England.

Clarice’s work stands out from her predecessors for its daring shapes, bright colours and stunning designs. They competed with the traditional and rather boring transfer printed china that was produced to complement the traditional silver teaset. Her work literally woke up the potteries of Stoke to new markets. Some of the larger companies such as Royal Doulton and Wedgwood were quick to experiment with similar Art Deco designs, but Clarice Cliff with her smaller workforce was able to experiment with more radical shapes and designs and thus remained at the forefront of British Art Deco design.

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