Clarice Cliff

by Lynn Knight

Clarice Cliff was one of the most influential ceramic artists of the 20th century. Born in 1899 in the Staffordshire Potteries, she began working life as a factory girl. By 1928, she had launched her own range of pottery, known as "Bizarre." A dazzling feast of color, it blazed a trail through the homes of interwar Britain. But if Cliff's rise from apprentice gilder to art director was remarkable—all the more so for being a woman—it was not without its for years she conducted a secret relationship with her married boss. Fusing art, design, and industry and vividly evoking the texture of women's lives between the wars, this is a compelling portrait of the complex, talented woman whose work is, for many, the epitome of Art Deco.

Genres: Biography Memoir, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published September 5, 2005

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have memories of a distinctive nasturtium adorned little set of side plates and cups that belonged to a long dead relative. I think this may, without knowing it, have been my introduction to Clarice Cliff, and now I have an interest in The Potteries and pass her blue plaque regularly... but there was something odd about this book. It was certainly interesting because Clarice Cliff was an uncommon woman for her time (and perhaps this time too) in ways I knew, and ways I didn't know before reading this.

Perhaps it was because the biographer had so little to go on from Clarice herself, she's built her picture up otherwise and it often felt as though it was done in a rather strange fashion more suited to a work of fiction based on the life of a real person.. except that I feel a novel would have fewer irrelevancies. (I am not talking about mere references to what was going on in the wider world for women, that felt entirely appropriate) I did like that we are sometimes presented with different accounts, perhaps from a colleague and a sibling and the facts are drawn out and the uncertainties honestly presented.

Aside (but not really aside at all) from her distinctive design talent, the remarkable thing about Clarice Cliff was her personal life, eventually marrying her well to do boss and long time mentor after the death of his first wife. The implication throughout was that she had had a long romantic relationship with him, but so discreet was she that it somehow seems mere conjecture on the evidence we are given. It feels as though the author doesn't know how to handle such information as she has and is uncomfortable about the role that Colley Shorter's attraction to his worker played in her success.

[Jackie O'sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should have been so much better. I found myself skip reading through so many chapters where it was repeating parts of the story already said or listing entries in magazines that didn't really add much to the whole. I don't feel like I know much more about Clarice Cliff's life than I did before starting the book which is a shame. At least it acknowledges her extended family which is more than can be said for the film allegedly based on this book but which is nothing like it.

[Hilary Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably a 3 for the writing and research about the period and social history of The Potteries. However,it felt as if there wasn't really that much to know about Clarice Cliffe herself, apart from the ceramics, so there was a lot of 'possibly' Clarice did this, 'perhaps' she was there etc.

[Fozia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well-researched biography of the artist and her day, and her impact on the visual arts.

[Beth Koorey]

Life was tough in The Potteries. A complex and talented artist, the book depicts life for women to be pretty restrictive.

[Fozia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well-researched biography of the artist and her day.