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Conical vase Secrets pattern
Conical Vase Secrets pattern
Conical vase Secrets pattern
Conical vase Secrets pattern

Conical Vase Secrets pattern

Designer (Tunstall, England, 1899 - 1972)
Associated (Burslem, England, 1894 - 1964)
Dateearly-mid 1930s
Object NameVase
Mediumearthenware
ClassificationsCeramics
DimensionsOverall: Height: 15.7 cm
Rim: Diameter: 7.9 cm
AcquisitionRobinson-Young Collection, purchased in 1998 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions and with income from the John Black Trust and the Hamilton Bequest.
LocationOn Display - Gallery 12
Object numberABDMS030566
Keywords
About MeAfter a brief period at other Staffordshire potteries, Clarice Cliff started her creative career as a paintress at the A.J. Wilkinson factory in Stoke-on-Trent in 1916. She attended classes at local art schools and, later, briefly studied at the Royal College of Art. Encouraged by the company management, she began to try out new, colourful designs on poor quality wares at Wilkinsons' Newport Pottery. These wares were outrageously modern, designed to be easily decorated by her team of paintresses. By 1929 she had her own range of modern shapes, many bearing the 'Bizarre' tradename. Although still designing for Wilkinsons in the 1950s and 1960s, Cliff had passed the height of her creativity and later produced more traditional designs for the company. Clarice Cliff introduced this startling conical shape in 1929. With its sharp angles and triangles it was hailed by critics of the day as avant garde, and quickly became extremely popular. Here it is decorated in one of her best selling landscape designs - Secrets - introduced in 1933.


More About Me

A lovely Art Deco style vase by a true daughter of the Potteries. With her experiments in modern designs Cliff became one of the UK's most prolific and important ceramicists.

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