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.