Clarice Cliff

Clarice Cliff was one of the pioneer designers and decorators of highly stylistic Art Deco ceramics during the early 1920s as the sleek, modern style of Art Deco took over Europe and the United States up until World War II. Clarice Cliff used basic pottery shapes which were clean yet angular in appearance, and then decorated them in vibrant colours along largely geometric patterns.

At age 16, she began working for the A. J. Wilkinson Company in Burslem, England near where she had grown up. Colley Shorter, the managing director of the company, recognized her talent almost immediately and she was sent to the Royal School of Art in London to continue developing her skills.

Eventually, the company set up a separate studio from which she could experiment with new designs. WIlkinson had always encouraged Clarice to design her own lines, and she was offered an even greater opportunity to create when Wilkinson purchased the Newport Pottery. Clarice took Newport "blanks" and began decorating her own unique and whimsical designs.

In 1928, Clarice Cliff began producing one of her most beloved lines, "Bizarre Ware", which she continued producing until approximately 1937 and a wide range of fantastic patterns were developed. She even had her all-female group of potters known as the "Bizarre Girls" who traveled the country to trade fairs and shows to promote the line. Cliff adopted the geometric shapes of Art Deco, but she also worked in figural shapes including the well known "Age of Jazz" figures as well as abstract shapes. Her colour decorations were vibrant and included the entire hue of colours but especially favoring blue, black, orange, and yellow. Additional artisans were hired to execute Cliff designs by hand on the company's products, and the "Crocus" pattern became one of her all time best sellers.

The success of Clarice Cliff ceramic designs during this period gave her great success and peer recognition in the arts world, still unusual for a woman during the 1930s. Many hold the view that her designs are garish and often crudely painted with no relationship to the shape on to which they are painted, but they are keenly sought after by collectors and can command very high prices.
In 1939, Colley Shorter's wife died, and he and Clarice were married in the following year. In later years, Clarice Cliff designs lost favor with the public, and the innovation of the twenties and thirties never returned. She and Colley never had children, and Clarice Cliff passed away in 1972.