Clarice Cliff

Two collections of Clarice Cliff pottery are coming up for sale in Salisbury, from typical wares to the very rare. ATG talks to Woolley & Wallis specialist Michael Jeffery about six lots that reflect the evolution of the pioneering designer’s output

The so-called Lucerne pattern, decorated in primary colours with a stylised Mediterranean chateau in a landscape, ranks among the scarcest and most desirable of all designs from Clarice Cliff’s ‘Appliqué’ range.

WHEN a market softens, it is often best to return to first principles – the core values of condition, market freshness and pricing that can be overlooked when an area of collecting really ‘takes off’.

NO-ONE seemed to be in doubt about the quality of Sevi Guatelli’s Clarice Cliff collection.

A YORKSHIRE dealer lost a lifetime's collection in one night when thieves stole the bulk of his Clarice Cliff stock built up over the last 25 years. Art Deco dealer Muir Hewitt lost around 55 pieces of Clarice Cliff when the thieves targeted his shop in the Redbrick Mill in Batley in the early hours of July 26.

Midlands auctioneers Fieldings and the Clarice Cliff Collectors’ Club (CCCC) are to join forces to hold sales of the avidly collected Art Deco pottery.

Collectors of Clarice Cliff have voiced their opposition to increased auctioneers’ charges with some refusing to attend Christie’s latest sale of the popular Art Deco pottery.

THE reputation established by Gardiner Houlgate over the last ten years for Clarice Cliff pottery has resulted in two specialist sales each year of around 200 lots.

The market for Clarice Cliff may not be the spirited beast it was five or six years ago when Christie’s South Kensington’s specialist sales could routinely expect to boast 80-90 per cent selling rates by lot.

THE March 5 sale at Dee Atkinson & Harrison's (10% buyer's premium) West Yorkshire saleroom was the first antiques offering of the year and, after an 83 per cent selling rate on nearly 700 lots, the auctioneers took encouragement from the way the market seemed to be picking up, with furniture, at last, edging out of the doldrums.

WITH sales of standard furniture chugging along – but at least finding buyers – Gildings (12.5% buyer's premium) of Market Harborough, in common with many in the provinces, looked to ceramics and clocks to provide the day’s highlights at their March 16 sale.

ALTHOUGH the market for Clarice Cliff appears to be going through one of its periodic troughs, a private collection coming up for sale still virtually guarantees wide interest.

AS WELL as their specialist musical instruments and clock specialist sales, the Bath auctioneers Gardiner Houlgate have been holding pioneering bi-annual sales devoted to Clarice Cliff and decorative arts sales for the past eight years.

Clarice Cliff and Moorcroft: THE majority of Clarice Cliff’s colourful and highly decorative pottery may be financially accessible to large numbers of enthusiasts for three-figure sums, but the top end of the market is driven by a relatively small number of wealthy buyers.