The Vibrant Legacy Of Clarice Cliff Dinnerware

Clarice Cliff is an English artist and designer known for her work on dinnerware sets. While she has designed many patterns for dinnerware, she is particularly famous for her art pottery designer pieces. Some of her notable works include the 'Bizarre' series, featuring plates, cups, saucers, teapots, and sugar bowls, and the 'Tonquin' pattern, which features a Victorian scene with an oriental motif. The 'Bizarre' series was produced under the trademark of Arthur J. Wilkinson Ltd, a company located in Burslem, Staffordshire, England. Other notable works by Cliff include the 'Autumn' and 'Sunshine' collections, as well as the 'Royal Stanfordshire Biarritz Dinnerware' set.

Clarice Cliff dinnerware sets with Tonquin pattern

The Tonquin pattern is a transferware design by Clarice Cliff for Royal Staffordshire. Transferware is the term used for pottery or china pieces decorated by transfer printing, a process developed in England in the mid-18th century. The Tonquin pattern features a Victorian scene with an oriental motif. It is found in a variety of colours, including blue, black, brown, green, red/pink, multi-colour, plum and mulberry.

Clarice Cliff Tonquin dinnerware sets can be found on Etsy, with prices ranging from $7.49 for a Royal Staffordshire Tonquin creamer in red transferware to $76 for a blue Tonquin teapot/coffeepot. A set of two Tonquin brown 10" dinner plates is also available for $52.49, reduced from $74.99. For those looking for a larger set, a set of fourteen vintage Royal Staffordshire Tonquin pattern dinnerware in brown and white is available for $56, reduced from $70.

Tonquin Royal Staffordshire dinnerware has been found to contain 48,100 ppm of lead, which may be unsafe for children.

Art Deco-style Clarice Cliff Bizarre dinnerware

Clarice Cliff is one of the UK's most influential ceramicists, known for her innovative and colour-rich designs. Her work is strongly associated with the Art Deco movement, which influenced her distinctive style and commercial success.

Cliff's first productions, launched in 1927, were called 'Bizarre' and featured abstract, geometric and figural forms decorated with bright colours. These designs were an immediate success, as they were both in the popular Art Deco style and inexpensive. The 'Bizarre' range included plates, jugs, teapots, cups and saucers, and in the following years, Cliff added hundreds of patterns to the original collection.

One of Cliff's most popular designs was the 'Crocus' pattern, which featured upward brush strokes of orange, blue and purple crocus flowers with green leaves added by holding the piece upside down and painting thin lines among the flowers. The 'Crocus' pattern was clearly completely hand-painted, which instantly attracted large sales and became Cliff's signature design.

In the late 1920s, Cliff also began to experiment with the shapes of her pottery, finding new ways to best display her designs. She drew inspiration from the Art Deco movement's fascination with the geometric rhetoric of Cubist art, incorporating this into her work through features such as triangular teacup handles and the conical form of her sugar casters.

Today, Cliff is regarded as one of the most influential ceramic artists of the 20th century, with her work collected, valued and admired worldwide. Her distinctive shapes and appealing, bright colours brought modernity to the kitchen, and her popularity was revived in the 1970s and 1980s, leading to worldwide collectability and establishing her as a key name in the Art Deco movement.

Royal Staffordshire dinnerware by Clarice Cliff

One of her popular designs for Royal Staffordshire is the Tonquin pattern, which was manufactured after World War II for the overseas market, including the United States. This pattern features a wide range of colours, including blue, brown, red, green, black, and the distinctive mulberry. Items in the Tonquin collection include dinner plates, soup bowls, mugs, cups and saucers, and serving pieces.

Another notable pattern by Clarice Cliff for Royal Staffordshire is the Green Ophelia set, which includes approximately 55 hand-painted pieces marked with the Royal Staffordshire Pottery stamp. Other patterns designed by Clarice Cliff for Royal Staffordshire include Rural Scenes, Peaceful Summer, and Charlotte.

Today, Clarice Cliff is recognised as a major artist of her time, and her work continues to stand the test of time, with collectors seeking out her unique and creative designs.

Clarice Cliff's art pottery designer pieces

Clarice Cliff (20 January 1899 – 23 October 1972) was an English ceramic artist and designer. She is known for her innovative, colour-rich designs, which were influenced by the Art Deco movement. Cliff's first productions were called 'Bizarre', and were decorated with bright colours and geometric patterns. She also produced a simple, hand-painted pattern of crocus flowers in orange, blue and purple, which became her signature design.

Cliff's work is now sought after worldwide, with collectors coveting her distinctive shapes and designs. Here are some examples of Clarice Cliff art pottery designer pieces:

• 'Bizarre' ware – This was Cliff's first range, which she began designing in 1927. The 'Bizarre' moniker was used as an umbrella term for different patterns she developed between the 1920s and 1930s. Within this range are sub-patterns such as ''Bonjour', 'Melon', and 'Blue Lugano'.
• 'Fantasque' range – This range mainly featured abstracts, landscapes, cottages and trees. The ''Autumn' pattern, issued at the end of 1930, was particularly popular and is considered a collectible.
• 'Circus' pattern – This pattern was featured in Harrod's London in 1934 as part of a 'Modern Art for the Table' campaign.
• 'Honolulu' and 'Fantasque' motifs – These patterns often depicted landscapes and vignettes in bright, enamelled colours.
• 'Age of Jazz' figurines – One of Cliff's most innovative forays, this series of Art Deco-style figurines included functional pieces like the 'Lido Lady' ashtray. A set of 'Age of Jazz' figurines sold for £15,000 at auction in 2018.
• 'Conical' sugar casters – The distinctive conical shape of these sugar casters makes them highly collectable.
• 'Appliqué' range – This range, produced between 1930 and 1931, is particularly sought-after due to the many man-hours required to decorate the pieces.
• 'Liner' vase – An example of one of Cliff's innovative vase shapes.
• 'Blue Chintz' pattern tea service – An example of Cliff's tea services, which often featured bold colours and dynamic forms.
• 'Tennis' conical bowl – An example of Cliff's sports-themed ware.
• 'Biarritz' plate – An example of Cliff's early 'Bizarre' productions.

Clarice Cliff's transfer pattern dinnerware

Clarice Cliff was an English potter and designer born in 1899 in the potteries area of Tunstall, Staffordshire. She worked in the potteries from the age of 13, where she learned a number of trades and mastered the techniques of gilding, enamelling, lithography and design. She worked for the Royal Staffordshire Pottery owned by A.J. Wilkinson and, at the age of 17, began to be credited as the designer of some of the company's items.

Clarice Cliff's most famous design is perhaps the 'Crocus' pattern, which features flowers between brown and yellow bands. However, she also designed dinnerware. One such design is the 'Tonquin' pattern, which features a Victorian scene with an oriental motif. This pattern is transfer-printed onto the china, a process developed in England in the mid-18th century. The process involves imprinting an engraved copper plate onto tissue paper, which is then laid onto the ceramic surface to transfer the image. The ceramic is then fired in a kiln at a low temperature, and again after the glaze has been applied.

Other patterns in the Clarice Cliff transfer-printed dinnerware range include 'Rural Scenes', 'Peaceful Summer', and 'Charlotte'. These patterns are available in a wide range of colours, including blue, brown, red, green, black, and mulberry.

Dinnerware by Clarice Cliff is highly collectible, with some pieces being worth hundreds of dollars. However, it is important to note that serious Clarice Cliff collectors are usually only interested in her art pottery designer pieces, and consider her transfer-printed dinnerware to be of less value.

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