CLARICE CLIFF

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Clarice Cliff was born in 1899 in Stoke-on-Trent, starting work at age 13 in 'The Potteries'.

She moved to the AJ Wilkinson's pottery factory in 1916 as an apprentice but eventually her wide range of skills were recognised and in 1927 she was given her own studio.

Her use of on-glaze enamel colours enabled a brighter palette than underglaze colours and she covered imperfections in simple patterns of triangles, in a style that she called 'Bizarre'.

When a few internationally-known singers and Hollywood film stars began collecting the ‘quirky’ shapes and colourful patterns of Clarice Cliff pottery in the 1960s and early 1970s, small pockets of collectors with an eye for the eclectic began buying this unique British pottery in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand as well as in the UK.

Very little, if anything, was known at the time about Clarice Cliff or her pottery. Yet in 1971 the Minneapolis Institute of Arts acknowledged her as a major Art Deco designer when a large number of her pieces appeared in their influential “World of Art Deco” Exhibition. In Britain the Brighton Museum held a Clarice Cliff retrospective exhibition in 1972.

SUSIE COOPER

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Born in Stanfields, Stoke-on-Trent, Susie Cooper was the youngest of seven children.

From an early age she developed an interest in drawing, and began her art education by attending night classes at the Burslem School of Art. In 1922 she joined the ceramics firm A. E. Gray & Co. Ltd, partially as a means to gain entry to the Royal College of Art.

A. Edward Gray quickly discovered her talents as a painter and designer, and soon she was producing her hand-painted floral designs. In 1923 A. E. Gray launched the Gloria Lustre Range employing the technique of lustreware.

She worked for many pottery firms over the next several decades, including Wedgwood.

In 1940 she was awarded Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts, and in 1979 she received an OBE. Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, was an admirer of her work.

At the age of 80 she retired to live on the Isle of Man, and died there in 1995. Like the Potteries-based ceramic designers Clarice Cliff and Charlotte Rhead, her work has become highly sought after and valued.

CHARLOTTE RHEAD

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Charlotte Rhead was an English ceramics designer active in the 1920s and the 1930s in the Potteries area of Staffordshire.

She was born into an artistic family with ceramics at the centre: her father Frederick Alfred Rhead began his career as an apprentice at Mintons where he learnt the art of pâte-sur-pâte ceramic decoration and went on to work at a number of potteries.

Charlotte started work at Wardle and Co, where her brother Frederick was art director before emigrating to the USA in 1902, and although she did not stay at the firm long it gave her the opportunity to develop her skills as a tubeliner.

In 1905 Charlotte worked as an enameler at Keeling & Co, then as a designer at tile-maker T & R Boote, and when her father was appointed art director of Wood and Sons in 1912, a firm which operated several potteries, Charlotte joined him there, taking charge of the tubeliners, and later working as a designer.

Charlotte is perhaps best known for her association with Burgess and Leigh of Middleport, where she worked as a designer from 1926 until 1931. In the 1930s she moved to the firm of AG Richardson in Tunstall, whose brand name was Crown Ducal.

Charlotte Rhead is noted for her cheerful tubelined designs, her style more traditional than that of Clarice Cliff and Susie Cooper, her contemporaries. Rhead's ware was popular in her lifetime, and continues to fetch moderate prices at auction.

CROWN DEVON

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The Crown Devon story started in the early 1870s when Simon Fielding put his life savings into the Railway Works in Sutherland Street, Stoke-on-Trent, but within a few years, the bailiffs came in and it was Simon's son Abraham, who stepped in to save the company.

Majolica ware was in fashion and Abraham started to produce it in abundance, thus S. Fielding and Co flourished and expanded, introducing a vast range of new products.

The Crown Devon backstamp appeared on a number of patterns from the 1880s although it was 1912 before the Railway Works was renamed The Devon Pottery.

The name Crown Devon was synonymous with quality but its wares also brought a bit of fun to thousands of people. Many items, produced for a few pence in the 20s and 30s, are now worth a great deal.

FIGURINES / FACE MASKS

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We carry a wide range of ceramic figurines and face masks by: