Clarice Cliff pottery: Colorful creations, many focusing on nature

Color, pattern, and form define the 20th-century pottery that sprang from the imagination of British designer Clarice Cliff (1899-1972). The hand-painted motifs shimmer with spring greens, ripe summer reds, golden fall shades, and chilly blues.

Cliff is celebrated for her bold art deco creations. When she named the main design lines "Bizarre" and "Fantasque," she proclaimed her groundbreaking departure from ho-hum pottery.

While some patterns are strictly geometric, the majority of her hand-painted decorations offer stylized glimpses of the natural world.

Castles with triangular turrets perch on hills and balloon-shaped trees wave atop curved trunks. Her fondness for fruit and flowers is reflected in pattern names such as Crocus, Passionfruit, Jonquil, and Honeydew.

Part of the artist's skill was her clever adaption of pattern to form. Profiles for vases and tableware range from rounded undulations to jagged points. One characteristic shape is the highly collectible conical sugar shaker decorated with various motifs.

In June, Kamelot Auctions in Philadelphia sold seven lots of tableware in the Rhodanthe pattern, part of Cliff's Bizarre line. Perfect for late summer, the design features pinwheel-like flowers in yellow and orange.

Place settings, sold for $240 each, featured cups with triangular handles. The pointed sugar shaker brought $300 and the drum-circle teapot $360.

Jeffrey Henkel, Kamelot's well-informed furniture and decorative arts specialist, says, "The pottery fits into many different scenarios. You can have a very modern house or a much more traditional house - her designs really go with anything. The bright colors are fabulous."

He continues, "The question today is, do you buy things from a catalog or do you search out things that are much more individual, things that will make your house more personal?"

"If you are planning a special lunch party and put a few pieces designed by Clarice Cliff on the table, they really pop. People would respond to them."

Kamelot is always looking for good pieces by Cliff. The firm's Fall Antique & Decorative Art Auction is Sept. 24, and Kamelot will offer exceptional architectural, industrial, and Victorian material Oct. 22.

While tableware appeals to some collectors, others focus on Cliff's extraordinary vases, jugs, and bowls, which can be appreciated as individual works of art. A lineup of five shapes in varied patterns on a mantle would transform an interior.

Important Cliff-designed objects have turned up in the modern-design auctions at Rago Arts in Lambertville, N.J. Owner David Rago feels lucky to have handled some great pieces.

"Larger pieces with bold designs seem preferred," he points out. "I've done well with landscapes."

Two years ago, Rago sold a jug in the blue Autumn pattern for $1,586. This striking landscape design from the early 1930s came in several bright color schemes. Trees might be green, blue, or even pink.

Harrod's department store in England was a major outlet for Cliff's pottery. Travelers returned with the appealing pieces, which now turn up at shows and sales throughout the United States.

Keep a lookout for rarities, such as the flat "Age of Jazz" dancers and musicians, first issued in 1930. The essence of art deco, these figures are among the most interesting of Cliff's designs.

Collectors are fortunate to have good references to use as field guides to the designer's myriad shapes and motifs. One of the most recent is Clarice Cliff, by Andrew Casey, published by the Antique Collectors' Club.

One helpful section in Casey's book is a list of 20 top patterns, which includes the above-mentioned Autumn, along with the geometric Football and the landscape Blue Firs. The volume also chronicles Cliff's rise from poorly paid line worker to head of design, one of the few women to hold such a position.

The chief appeal of Cliff's pottery seems to be that it makes people happy.

When other purchases lose their appeal, the designer's bold patterns cheer at a glance.

In his introduction to Casey's reference, antiquarian Eric Knowles offers this critique of her work: "Her creations are for the most part cheerful, with the ability to raise a smile, and any art form that can play on our emotions in such a positive manner has to be worthy of the international acclaim she continues to enjoy."