A sad fact of life about Cybis porcelain has been the dearth of resources available to those looking for information about their sculptures – hence the need for the very comprehensive reference ‘encyclopedia’ that you are now perusing! However, it’s worth reviewing the alternative-format and previous research sources as well.
Many mainstream collectibles companies established (or aficionados themselves establish) some type of collectors’ club or organization, and at long last the Cybis studio did end up creating a Cybis Collectors Society in the 1990s. Unfortunately it was short-lived and no reference materials were ever published in connection with it. Thus the collector’s usual first line of research was immediately a dead end.
To make things even more challenging, Cybis never published a collectors’ guide in the usual sense (meaning a 100% complete listing of all sculptures with photos, details, and original issue prices). However, in early 2009 I came across the mention of a Cybis collectors guide published in 2003 by Carol Marren. I have never seen this guide for sale, and attempts during 2014 and 2015 to contact the author were unsuccessful. This publication does have an ISBN but it is publicly available only at the Library of Congress.
The Cybis studio launched a website (www.cybisporcelain.info) in the early 2000s in order to establish an internet sales presence. Unfortunately it ws far from comprehensive and was not always accurate. There was only a single photo of currently available sculptures, 99% of them scanned from a piece of printed Cybis literature; what you saw is not the actual piece that you would get. Worse yet, some of the photos were attached to the wrong item, and some entries did not have any photo at all. There was no section showing completed/retired sculptures. The site was never updated after January 2009, and it disappeared entirely in late 2018.
Faced with the absence of any comprehensive official channels for research, the only recourse until now has been fragmentary online resources and vintage print materials.
Online Resources
Current and sold listings on eBay are one source for researching market value and/or seeing multiple photos of a piece, though rarely for correct background info. One downside to eBay is that not all listings have the sculpture identified by name, which necessitates doing a search only for the name Cybis within the category of Collectibles (because there is a software company also named Cybis.) Another downside to using eBay as an information source that incorrect information taken from other sellers tends to go viral and end up perpetually uncorrected, and/or details can be skimpy or nonexistent. And because eBay’s Sold search goes back for only 90 days, it is useless for determining market value of any piece that hasn’t actually been sold there at least once during that time period.
The online venue Replacements.com has consistently offered a selection of Cybis for decades. The sculptures are always correctly identified by name, but there may not be a photo for each one and the image is usually whatever Cybis once used in their advertising materials, so the image is not necessarily of the actual piece they have on hand (you’d need to contact them and ask). Useful information is limited to only the name, the asking price, and in a few cases the introduction year (shown as “style” for some reason.) Their NB codes are internal and have no relevance to Cybis. Replacements also sells on eBay, so there is some cross-site duplication, and in general their asking prices are higher than other online selling venues.
Other selling venues such as Etsy and Ruby Lane usually include a few Cybis but in much lower quantity than the “big two.” See Selling Your Cybis for other online selling venues.
The Kovels guide to collectibles does include some Cybis but due to space limitations they cannot possibly list even a fraction of all that were produced – and certainly none of the special editions, special commissions, and so forth. Their estimates are not usually reality-based either.
The only comprehensive online resource for identification and sculpture history is now this site; the About the Cybis Reference Archive page explains its origins and evolution. In January 2023, a Recent/Historical Selling Prices page was added; it reports actual online sales of limited edition Cybis and is the only online source that does so over an extended period of time
Printed Resources
(With the addition of a new, separate post showing the publications and advertising materials that the Cybis studio produced, the information originally in this section has been relocated to Cybis Porcelain Publications and Advertising Materials.) All Cybis-published material effectively ceased after the 1980s except for the occasional text price list.
Name Index of Cybis Sculptures
Visual Index (for human figures/busts only)
About the Cybis Reference Archive
What is Cybis?
Images of Cybis porcelain sculptures are provided for informational and educational purposes only. All photographs are copyrighted by their owner as indicated via watermark. Please see the copyright notice in the footer and sidebar for important information regarding the text that appears within this website.
The Cybis Archive provides the most comprehensive range of information about Cybis within a single source. It is not and never has been part of the Cybis Porcelain studio, which is no longer in business.
THE CYBIS ARCHIVE 