Clarice Cliff, Chinese Lanterns, a single-handled Lotus jug c.1929, hand painted with a group of Chinese lanterns hanging from a flowering bough, each lantern with a different design with blue banding and handle, large Bizarre mark, height 12in (30cm). This is a unique design from Clarice Cliff having originally been found in New Zealand some 20 years ago. Estimate £3000-5000 at Fieldings.
For the last 16 years the Stourbridge saleroom has been holding twice-yearly auctions dedicated to this landmark designer.
Clarice Cliff, Tennis, a matched Stamford shape early morning breakfast set c.1930, comprising teapot, milk, sugar, two cups, two saucers and a side plate, all hand painted with an abstract line design with net motif and red, pink and yellow banding, Bizarre mark. The teapot, milk and sugar were sold as one lot at Clarice Cliff & Susie Cooper sale at Christie's South Kensington in November 1991. Estimate £3000-5000 at Fieldings.
The next specialist sale at Fieldings on March 14 is dubbed a “landmark event” in this collecting market in the 125th year since the designer’s birth. With 300 lots on offer, the saleroom says it stands as “one of the most significant offerings of her work in decades”.
Estimates will range from £30 to £10,000.
Applique Etna, an 18in (45.5cm) ribbed charger c.1930, hand painted with a stylised landscape with trees to the foreground and a mountain below a deep orange sky with black and orange banding, partial Bizarre mark to the reverse. This exact charger was used by Clarice Cliff in a period promotional photograph where she appears to be painting the piece, however it would have already been fired otherwise the enamels would have smudged on her coat. Sold at Christie’s in November 1994, the charger is now estimated at £10,000-15,000 at Fieldings.
The sale includes “unique factory trials, fresh-to-market examples and some of the rarest pieces ever seen including the seldom seen Age of Jazz figures, 20 Lotus Jugs, six 18in chargers, two Yo-Yo vases and a wide selection of some of the rarest designs including many Applique pieces and dozens of desired abstracts”.
Some of the key pieces in the sale are returning to market after 30 years.
