In 1927, two years after Boleslaw and Marja Cybis married, the couple began to construct a home and studio in Placówka, near Warsaw and the Vistula River. Boleslaw Cybis knew this area from his time in the nearby Kazimierz Dolny in 1924. Some of the art in Cybis Drawings from the 1920s dates from that [...]
Although freelance artist Dolores Valenza was a relative latecomer to porcelain sculpture, she first began creating art as a very young child. She credited her numerous visits to The Brooklyn Museum as being one of her earliest influences and was especially drawn to the work of the Impressionists. Later she attended the Pratt Institute which [...]
What was once a brief moment of idle curiosity several years ago has recently blossomed into a question that resulted in the title of this post. It was rather a surprise because, given the type of art created by Boleslaw Cybis himself, Staffordshire export china would seem a very unlikely genre to appeal to him. [...]
This post is an attempt to unravel the tangled skein that is the production history of the third Cybis portrayal of Cinderella, known as Cinderella ‘Belle of the Ball.’ It reads rather like a mystery novel, complete with unexpected twists and turns. Let’s begin with a quick glance at the first two Cybis Cinderella pieces. [...]
This post falls into the morbid-curiosity category, inspired by the flood of Cybis porcelain ‘variations’ and ‘resurrections’ that began during the 1980s and rapidly gathered steam through the next two decades. So, how should we define a 'new, original' Cybis design? A decorative variation is NOT a new design! Sticking a bowtie and two tiny [...]
Although two of my Archive posts (Signatures & Marks, and Authenticating, Part Two) delve into the subject of the various Cybis signature formats, I hadn’t addressed the occasional discovery of pieces that have no signature at all, despite being undoubtedly a Cybis-made item. There are three possible scenarios that can account for a Cybis sculpture [...]
This post will delve into what the owners of Cybis did to commemorate the 50th decade of the studio’s operation. Some of their choices are rather open to interpretation! In the autumn of 1939, Boleslaw and Marja Cybis were traveling back to their home in Poland after completing their work on the Polish Pavilion at [...]
Are you a book-lover? I’ve been one all my life, although my home library has had to be pared down to only 281 (as of today; I have a few more on pre-publication order) due to limited space, and I’ve no desire to join the digital-book brigade. For several reasons, e-books simply aren’t for me. [...]
Collectors of art porcelain may not have known Patricia Eakin’s name, but they were undoubtedly familiar with her work. She was yet another of the unsung heroes of the industry. Patricia Jean Eakin was born on October 25, 1914 in Virginia. She had an older sister, Kathleen, and would have a younger brother, Birch, after [...]
I am occasionally asked for advice regarding the best venue in which to offer any of the Cybis North American Indians series. My reply always begins with this sentence: “Well, those can be a bit tricky." The purpose of this post is to explain why. One reason is that the subject of the series (Native [...]
The Cybis archive 