If Charles Darwin had regarded the Galapagos tortoises from a commercial, rather than environmental, evolutionary standpoint, one wonders whether his theories would have ended up reaching quite the same conclusions as they did! All kidding aside, I recently discovered a fascinating ‘evolution’ of a turtle mold within the confines of the Cybis studio. This particular [...]
One of the most rewarding aspects of creating and maintaining this site is discovering the story behind ‘mystery sculptures’ – those that never appeared in any Cybis publications, advertising, or retail stores. Typically they pop up unexpectedly on eBay or within a query from an Archive reader; but one in particular puzzled me for several [...]
One might think that the only appearance of Cybis in the media was in advertising materials and occasional newspaper snippets, but that would fall short of the mark. Cybis porcelains have made cameo appearances within several works of fiction and nonfiction, plus at least one popular television series. Ideals Publishing Co. Gift Books The earliest [...]
One of the Cybis studio’s ‘new’ retail introductions during the 1990s was a decorative piece titled Cupid Bowl, Original Famous Cybis Award. However, I recently discovered that its first appearance – like many of their 1990s-2000s offerings – took place decades earlier. It has been very interesting to dissect the chronology of this particular design. [...]
Throughout the Cybis studio’s history, their advertising photos followed a familiar pattern: backgrounds were either solid or shaded color blends, and when they weren’t, ‘props’ had more than enough bokeh to avoid distracting from the porcelain subject. The common denominator was that they were done within the confines of a professional photographer’s studio – with [...]
Although my other profiles in this Archive focus only on people who worked at or for Cybis, I must now, with great sadness, recognize the passing of someone who was instrumental in forging that studio’s success: Ira Jacobson, owner of Brielle Galleries. In many ways, he was an important driving force that helped Cybis to [...]
As mentioned in my recent post about Chantilly China, the Cordey China Company had yet another lookalike product in the 1940s home décor market. Unlike Chantilly, this other company – Heirlooms of Tomorrow – was based not in Trenton, but on the west coast. The brand ‘Heirlooms of Tomorrow’ was launched in 1944 in Manhattan [...]
The word ‘variation’, as it applied to Cybis porcelains, could have any of several meanings. It could refer to a single sculpture that was subsequently released, with additional decorative elements, as a new piece with a different name; the ‘warren’ of bunnies is a great example of that. The 1981 bunny Bon-Bon was especially prolific [...]
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