Czech Pottery: Why It's Not Clarice Cliff

Peasant Art Pottery Covered Jar       
     Trocadero.com /Antiques from Home

One of my first purchases, after I made the mental leap from collector to dealer, was a Peasant Art Pottery cup and saucer made in Czechoslovakia.  I liked the stylized floral motif, the black background, and the heaviness of the hand-made pottery.  Following the advice from one of the books I'd read I priced it at three times what I'd paid and sold it for twice what I'd paid - then I bought some price guides and found out how desirable and valuable that piece really was.   Peasant Art Pottery was the creation of Joseph Mrazek who had emigrated to the US in the Trocadero.comearly 1900s.  He was creative, setting up his business in New York and setting up small factories back home in Czechoslovakia where the pottery would be made according to his copyrighted designs.
The company lasted from 1917 until 1935 during which time Czechoslovakia became an independent country.  Mrazek, an artist of his time, continued to successfully market his stylized florals and another, rarer Art Deco design.  The bright abstract designs remind people of Clarice Cliff but his work was less sophisticated, more folkloric and his pottery was much heavier gauge than the English earthenware she used.  I think Peasant Art Pottery stands on its own as a desirable collectible, along with other Czech pottery from Tulla and Ditmar Ubach.

Vintage Cornish Ware: A Personal Favorite

Vintage Sifter Set

Cornish Ware is an English ceramic made by the pottery T.G. Green, beginning in the 1930s.  The first product was striped in blue and white, with yellow and white striped pieces introduced in the 1960s, and other colorways thereafter.  Each piece was molded then lathe-turned to raise the blue stripes above the white.  This distinguished Cornish Ware from other blue and white striped ceramics and pottery, a pleasing, classic color combination.  After the successful marketing of a limited number of pieces T.G. Green regularly brought out new shapes of teacups, teapots, coffee mugs (or cans), and coffee pots, as well as labeled storage jars for a plethora of food products.  They made a variety of salt and pepper shakers as well as a condiment set that included a small covered pot for mustard.  Their large salt, pepper, flour and sugar shakers, called sifters, were meant for kitchen use and were sold in sets.  The line was hugely successful so a great many pieces were made and can still be found, in England, Canada and the US.  I prefer the shapes of the vintage pieces, before a re-design undertaken in the mid-1960s, which can be identified by the shield-shaped back stamp printed in green or black.   

How Clarice Cliff Named Her Designs

Limberlost

Clarice Cliff's ceramic designs fall into three main categories: florals, landscapes and abstracts.  Her most popular motif was Crocus, produced in more than one colorway and subsequently named Spring Crocus, Autumn Crocus, Purple Crocus and Blue Crocus.  Her landscapes often have houses or bridges and might be named for a place, except when they are not.  For instance, one landscape with two houses snuggled together is known as Secrets - what might be called a thematic rather than a descriptive name.  Another enigma is the design known as Limberlost, which has pine trees and a white gardenia.  On a quick tour through Google I found Limberlost Swamp, in Indiana, which is the setting  for A Girl of the Limberlost written by Gene Stratton-Porter in 1909.  But Clarice Cliff was English.  So many American places were named by English settlers that I checked again and found Limberlost Park near Whitstable, Kent - now it is what we would call a campgrounds.  But it's reasonable to imagine that Clarice Cliff herself visited the area in the 1930s or before and transposed its natural beauty through her creative imagination to a place with orange trees.

Why Clarice Cliff?

I added Clarice Cliff to my selection of ceramics a few years ago, taking the leap into a more expensive collectible.  There are several reasons for my decision:  Cliff was innovative and influential in the British ceramics industry, particularly in the 1930s, and those are attributes I admire.  There's the wow factor of the colors and shapes.  I like the poetry of her abstract names (why are the exploded floral shapes called "aurea", "viscaria" or "rhodanthe"?)  As I spent time in my earlier years struggling with the paint brush (batik T-shirts in my case) I greatly admire the fluidity, how her designs fill space.  Since there are variations in the placement of Cliff's designs on the objects that came out of her workshop depending which woman painted the piece a collector should evaluate how well the pattern relates to the shape.  I'm drawn to her bizarre florals right now, but might go after her earlier abstracts.

Welcome to Antiques from Home

Trocadero.com                      Clarice Cliff is in my inventory!

Hello.  This is my first post, ever, and it's on my own blog.  I am Judith Lesser, owner of Antiques from Home.  I specialize in English Deco ceramics, including Clarice Cliff and Shelley.  My inventory includes many fine ceramics, which I have for sale at the website Trocadero.com, under the store name Antiques from Home.  You can go to Trocadero by clicking on the link below the picture.  I also sell at Antiques Shows in Virginia, New Jersey and New York, and my home state of Maryland.

I enjoy being part of the antiques and collectibles world (since a lot of my inventory is from the first half of the 20th century some would say I'm only in collectibles, not antiques).  Regardless I stand behind my product, my taste, and about 15 years experience in the business. 

Currently I'm getting ready for the Madison-Bouckville Antiques Show in New York state August 20-22.  This will be my first experience at what I hear is a great show (despite the 999 other dealers who will be there competing for sales and the fact it's an outdoor show subject to weather.  If you can't stand some adverse conditions don't be in business). Let me assure any collector who has stumbled into this blog that I will bring a variety of merchandise besides ceramics, including quilts, interesting metals, costume jewelry, and mauchline.  I picked up some terrific footstools over the weekend, and will be looking for more.  I knew there was a way for me to "get into" furniture.

That's all for now.  I'll probably have a few technical glitches along the way, so bear with me.  I'll be posting new finds - even pictures - here and at Trocadero.  And look out for a picture of me one of these days!