famous English designer, 15" X 19", excellent..............Who Was Clarice Cliff?Born in 1899 in the heart of Stoke-on-Trent, one of England’s hubs for ceramic production, Clarice Cliff was born into a large working-class family and began work as an apprentice decorator at a local pottery factory in her early teens. She spent several years in Stoke-on-Trent learning skills and techniques, such as gilding and enameling, so she could lavish amazing designs and motifs on ceramic vessels, and she paired her work with nighttime study at the Burslem School of Art. Then, in 1916, Cliff took on a new position at the A.J. Wilkinson ceramic factory in Burslem, where her true talents as a ceramic artist were realized. In addition to sending her to London in the 1920s for a brief study stint at the Royal College of Art, Wilkinson’s owners also awarded Cliff her own studio at the nearby Newport Pottery factory.Once installed at Newport Pottery, Cliff set out on a series of innovative designs in 1927 under what she called “Bizarre” wares. These vessels broke new ground in response to rising trends in Art Deco motif, and their immediate popularity meant that Cliff could hire apprentices to help decorate her designs. Her oversight of one of the era’s most thriving workshops – totaling by some accounts than seventy assistants – by the end of the 1920s led to her promotion to Art Director of all of Newport Pottery in 1930, a remarkable accomplishment for a female artist in the early twentieth century. Cliff dominated the ceramics market of the 1930s with her brilliant combination of the bold geometry of the Art Deco movement and the defined, saturated colors associated with DeStijl masters like Theo van Doesburg or Piet Mondrian. This use of the modern art visual language in her wares granted them a vibrance and freshness that contemporary audiences adored..

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