‘Sunshine Girl’ is set to grace the silver screen
WHEN people think about big hitters of the Potteries today, one of the biggest will no doubt be Clarice Cliff.
But, despite being one of the Potteries’ most famous daughters, until the 1970s her fame hadn’t really spread much further than the Six Towns.
It was during this period that this began to change. As the 1970s dawned, Clarice’s work began to gain interest from collectors and critics, and the first exhibition of her work was held in Brighton from December 1971 to January 1972. Just a few months later, Clarice Cliff passed away.
In 1976, Peter Wentworth-shields and Kay Johnson published ‘Clarice Cliff’ which led to a surge of interest in her work, and in 1982, the Clarice Cliff Collector’s Club was formed which continues to promote and champion her work all over the world.
In 2004, a piece of her work – a wall plaque in her ‘May Avenue’ pattern – sold for £39,500, a world record for a Clarice Cliff piece.
And now the story of Clarice’s life and her immense talent is about to be shared with a much wider audience.
A few years back, award-winning scriptwriter and novelist Claire Peate prepared ‘The Colour Room’ – a biopic of Clarice that was optioned by Caspian Films and has now been produced by Sky Original.
‘The Colour Room’ sees Clarice portrayed by Phoebe Dynevor and will illustrate how she broke new ground in the pottery industry and made art accessible to the masses. Filming is now underway at various locations around North Staffordshire. It’s great news for Tunstall and the city.
Clarice Cliff was born into a typical Potteries working class family in the shadow of Greengates Pottery on the backstreets of Tunstall, starting her career in the industry at the age of 13 as a gilder.
She went on to master a range of other skills while at the same time attending the Burslem School of Art, where she studied art and sculpture.
In 1916, she made the move to AJ Wilkinson at Newport Pottery in Middleport, and it was here where she formed a relationship that would shape the rest of her life.
Here, Clarice further developed her skills, and through the decorating manager Jack Walker, she eventually came to the attention of Colley Shorter, who managed the company with his brother Guy.
Colley became Clarice’s mentor, but they eventually became closer, and despite Shorter being married, and a 17-year age gap between the two, they became lovers.
When Shorter’s first wife Ann passed away in 1940, he and Clarice married, and she went to live with him at Chetwynd House on Northwood Lane in Clayton.
Her big break came in 1927 when she was given her own studio at Newport Pottery, and sent to the Royal College of Art for two periods of study.
AJ Wilkinson’s ware had been fairly conservative prior to Clarice’s arrival, but she was given the freedom to experiment using defective glost ware, where she developed her Jazz Age and Art Deco influenced patterns, left, which were eventually branded ‘Bizarre’.
The work proved extremely popular and sold in large numbers, and within two years, she had a team of seventy painters working alongside her.
The ware produced by Clarice Cliff and her team earned her the nickname ‘Sunshine Girl’, and was said to have ‘brightened up many bored housewives’ lives’.
She herself said that she strove for ‘colour and plenty of it…i cannot put too much of it into my designs to please women’. The ware found its way into many retail outlets, including Harrods, where her ‘Inspiration’ range fetched the highest prices.
Clarice Cliff never stood still and understood the need to innovate, constantly introducing new patterns – more than 350 were produced by Clarice and her team.
The outbreak of the Second World War disrupted her work at AJ Wilkinson – the introduction of wartime regulations limiting production to simply plain white pottery.
And so, she assisted with the management of Newport Pottery and focused her creative talent on the garden of the home she shared with Colley Shorter.
AJ Wilkinson continued to sell ware under Clarice Cliff’s name until the 1960s. Colley Shorter passed away in 1963, and the following year Newport Pottery was sold to the Midwinter company when Clarice retired.
She passed away in 1972, just as her work was beginning to receive wider recognition.
Despite her work initially being considered ‘cheap and cheerful’, Clarice Cliff is now an internationally renowned ceramic designer, and her influence can still be felt greatly today.
It can be seen locally in the work of Emma Bailey, while ceramic artist Chris Rogers produces beautiful Art Deco products which are a clear love letter to Clarice.
When asked about her approach, Clarice said: “Having a little fun at my work does not make me any less of an artist”.
I admire Clarice and her work greatly, and although I’m no artist, that’s certainly a philosophy I dig.
And I’m very much looking forward to her story appearing on the silver screen.