Cybis had a continuous history of child head/portrait busts through most of the studio’s existence. All but three were attached to a wood base, and all were between 9” and 11” high overall. Most were issued as companion sculptures although each was sold separately. Only three were limited editions; the others were open (non-limited). Let’s take a look at them in chronological order.
I don’t know if this young girl bust from the 1950s was actually given a name by Cybis, although I do know that the original was modeled from life. I do not know if the studio ever produced it as a retail piece, but if they did, it would be the earliest of their child portrait busts. This bust was within a mix lot of more than a dozen assorted Cybis child busts that were liquidated at auction in 2019. It is not mounted on a base, and I do not know the height of the piece but will hazard a guess that it’s probably about 8” or 9” tall.
The original-edition Head of Boy and Head of Girl were both introduced in 1963 (at $40 retail) and retired in 1970 at $85. They are approximately 9.75” high on their wood bases. As related in When Is a Cybis Not a Cybis, neither were original Cybis-designed molds although Cybis later purchased the copyright to both of these (exact) sculptures.
On most of these heads the Cybis signature is applied by hand with a brush, in brown paint. However, these two were signed with the same stamp that the studio used on their 1950s pieces, suggesting that these may have been among the earliest ones produced. Notice also the different wood finish used for the bases, suggesting that these were not only early but from different production ‘runs.’
A real surprise was the discovery of this pair in an nonstandard hair color! This is the only example that I have come across and would be very interested to know whether they are one of a kind. However, they are both signed simply “Cybis” as normal, with no A.P. designation which the studio always adds to a OOAK piece. It’s also possible that they were done for a special gallery event, although those issues typically date from the 1970s and 1980s. It would be very surprising to discover one from the 1960s! This pair really flew under the collectors’ radar: it was first offered in November 2013 and did not sell; then again by the same auctioneer almost a year later in September 2014, did not sell; and finally sold – third time’s the charm – two months later at only $118 for the pair.
The circa-1990s Hall of Fame replica editions of these two busts are shown later in this post.
In 1967 Cybis released both the Baby Boy Head and the Baby Girl Head. Both are 11” high overall, both sold for $95, and both were made for only a single year before being retired in 1968. The boy head (and possibly the girl as well) has gone by slightly different names within Cybis literature: in their 1967 catalog they are both called “Baby Heads”, in the 1968 catalog the boy is pictured in profile with the name as “Young Boy”, and the 1979 catalog’s appendix lists him as the “Baby Boy Head!” Because the 1979 one is the most recent – and makes the most sense – that appears to be the official version.
Simultaneously with the two open-edition baby busts above, Cybis also introduced the limited edition Baby Bust. The second photo shows a slightly different colorway, in which the baby has more hair and the blanket differs in color; at least three of these have been seen for sale online. It had a declared edition of 500 (at $375 retail) in 1967 but in 1968 this edition too was closed after only 239 orders for him had been taken. At the time of closing the price had risen to $550. It is 11” high on its wood base. Read on for an explanation of the edition size reduction!
For some reason this sculpture has always reminded me of a Buddha statue in the “protection pose”!
This piece had serious production problems, i.e., a bad habit of exploding in the kiln (probably the definition of Not A Good Thing!) This photo was included in the studio’s 1986 short film Porcelains that Fire the Imagination, as the narrator explained that sometimes a sculpture will explode during the firing process. The photo the studio chose was this one, showing an in-kiln exploded Baby Bust! The red arrow points to his surviving left arm (back view) with the corner of his blanket; the purple arrow points to the shards left by the explosion. What’s really telling is the identity of the other sculptures that are in the kiln at the same time: two male Jogger, two Nefertiti, two circus elephant ‘Alexander’, and one of the Holiday Children issues. All of these pieces were introduced during the mid to late 1970s, but the Baby Bust had been closed to new orders since 1968! This photo indicates that, due to the chronic production problems, it took the studio almost 10 years to fill those original 239 retailer orders. That is a truly staggering loss ratio.
After the baby busts (perhaps in more ways than one??) Cybis did not introduce any new child heads for a few years, until 1972 when Eskimo Child Head ‘Snow Bunting’ (shown on the left in this photo) was released at $165. Retirement came in 1981 at $365, a significant price increase. It is 10.5” high on its base. Although Cybis price lists and catalogs show the name as “Snow Bunting”, official correspondence from the studio – as well as several contemporary retailer advertisements – show it as Eskimo Child ‘Amouleegah’ (Snow Bunting) instead. A special edition of the Eskimo Child was created in the late 1970s for a Cybis event at Brielle Galleries. Not only are his base and colorway different, but a hat and turtleneck sweater have been added. This sculpture, shown on the right, was given its own name of ‘Nanuq’, Little Polar Bear and was an edition of only 200. If memory serves, I believe the price was somewhere between $250 and $295. One was also donated to a Garden State Arts Center charity auction in 1978.
This Nanuq in a yellow hat turned up in an estate sale in 2022. It is also not on a base, which all of the other Eskimo Child busts always were. Based on the other Cybis items in the same sale, this is probably a piece that was painted and/or sold at the studio itself during the 1990s. This auctioneer’s photos were exceptionally bad (very overexposed) and so it’s possible that the colors are a bit darker than they appear here.
This female version of Amouleegah/Snow Bunting was among the items sold in the studio’s 2019 liquidation. I assumed it was either a test piece or gallery event piece until I accidentally found a 1975 document in the online holdings of the Gerald Ford Presidential Library, whereby the Cybis studio describes an Eskimo Girl Head ‘Ahmah’ along with Amouleegah. This example is probably an extra or backup sculpture because this piece was never introduced for retail sale. It is nice that she now has a name and “birthdate”, though.
Although this next sculpture isn’t technically a bust because it does show part of her lower body, I’ve chosen to include Mary, Mary here. Her inspiration was, of course, the nursery rhyme. She is 10.5” high and was produced only from 1974 to 1979, at $475 retail throughout. She was a limited edition but there is a bit of confusion as to the actual edition size. The declared edition of 750 was definitely reduced to only 500 before closing, according to the 1979 Cybis catalog. However, the sculpture shown in this photograph was described by the auctioneer as Cybis bisque limited edition figure, ‘Mary, Mary’, h 10 ½”: Hand-painted number 525 of limited edition. See this post for a discussion of Cybis limited-edition pieces that are found to be ‘over-numbered.’
Eros, a bust of the Greek child-god of love, was introduced in 1974 and is profiled with the mythological characters.
Cybis returned to their original practice of introducing ‘companion’ male and female child heads at the same time in 1975, with the Indian Boy Head ‘Little Eagle’ and the Indian Girl Head ‘Running Deer’. In their advertising Cybis described them as brother and sister. Both open editions were retired in 1979. Running Deer is 10” high, was issued at $175 and retired at $285. Little Eagle is 12.5” high and sold at a slightly higher price point ($225/$365). Neither of these was ever attached to a base. They were always classified by Cybis as part of their “children” series rather than their North American Indians collection, by the way.
In 1976 Cybis introduced another iconic child head. This is the Child Clown Head ‘Funny Face’ (shown at right in the photo) which was sculpted by by Marylin Chorlton except for the hat which was designed by William Pae. He is 10.5” high and was introduced at $225. He continued in the Cybis lineup until the studio ended production in the 2000s; he was $475 in 1993. Funny Face was also produced in at least (to my knowledge) two numbered special-event editions for retail galleries; there may be additional versions that I’m not currently aware of, so if any reader happens to have one I’d love to add it here.
‘Funny Face’ with Holly (shown at left) was the separate holiday-themed retail edition, first appearing in late 1978 at $325. This holly-trimmed version has a white base whereas all of the other Funny Face issues are on dark wood. The studio continued to offer him in 1979 but he appears on no subsequent price lists until the early 1990s, when the studio brought him back at more than double his original price. It’s not likely that many of those were sold.
Funny Face in Green with Daisy was a special edition of 150 numbered sculptures produced in the 1980s for a Cybis event at the Reese Palley store in Atlantic City, NJ. This was the actual name that the piece was given. If I recall correctly the price was either $295 or $325.
Lucky was another special-event piece that was, like the Eskimo Child ‘Nanuq’ , numbered and also given its own name. This piece is unusual for another two reasons: it had an plaque affixed to the base (which was done for very few Cybis issues) and it was not done for a retail gallery:
I can only assume (dangerous, I know!) that Claridge’s in Atlantic City approached Cybis with a request to make a special piece for their New Years’ Eve celebration event to which their ‘high rollers’ were invited. Perhaps each table had one of these as a centerpiece which was later raffled off? This was a physically-numbered edition of 300.
The introduction of redheaded Jeremy in 1977 coincided with Cybis temporarily renaming the child head collection as “Children of the World”. He is 9.5” high overall. Originally issued at $175, he was retired in the spring of 1980 at $315.
His sister-sculpture Jennifer appeared in 1978 at a slightly higher $210 price point. She is a bit smaller at 9.25” high and was likewise retired in 1981 (at $325.)
The same year (1978) also saw the introduction of Jason who is the same size as Jeremy (9.5” on base) and was priced at $195. Another pre-1982 retirement here.
Jason’s companion sculpture Jessica was issued in 1979 at $245, is the same size as Jennifer (9.25”), and was retired either in Fall 1980 or Spring 1981 at $325. Jessica and Jason are two of only three African-American children that Cybis ever portrayed; the other is the Football Player seen in the Sports Sculptures post. See this post for an overview of ethnic diversity in Cybis sculpture editions.
The Oriental Boy ‘Cheerful Dragon’ (Shi Lun) also made his appearance in 1979. He is 10” high on base and had an issue price of $300. His price at his 1981 retirement was $375. He and his sister/companion piece were sculpted by Gertrude Fass.
Following the precedent set by Jeremy/Jessica, the following year (1980) saw the appearance of Oriental Girl ‘Lotus Blossom’ (Lien Hua). She is the same height as the other girl-head sculptures, at 9.25”. Her Spring 1980 issue price was $325 and her 1981 retirement price was $375.
Psyche, the myth-based companion head to Eros, was also introduced in 1980 and – like Eros – is profiled in the Mythological post. One of the two doll heads that Cybis designed for the Hamilton Collection in the 1990s was derived from this bust. Psyche was created by Gertrude Fass.
These two Victorian-era children are Edward and Victoria, both sculpted by Gertrude Fass and issued in 1981 although ‘split’ between the Spring and Fall introductions. Both are 10” high overall. They were introduced in 1981 at $345 each, and were retired together in 1983.
The third limited edition child bust issued by Cybis was Robin (Girl’s Head with Flowers) which is an edition of 1000 introduced in 1982. She is the largest of this genre at 10.75” high overall. Her introductory price was $475 which rose to $650 by 1988. This piece, too, was sculpted by Gertrude Fass.
This detail shot of Robin’s flower crown shows that by the 1980s the studio was moving away from some of the handmade-flower details of the previous decade and opting for the easier-to-produce (but less attractive) molded ones instead.
Joseph Chorlton presents a Robin to Susan Lucci when the actress was honored by the March of Dimes during the 1980s.
Two additional Gertrude Fass child busts were created but never released by Cybis: a Mexican Boy and a Mexican Girl. The clay model of the boy head is seen in the background of a candid in-studio snapshot from the 1980s. I honestly don’t understand why Cybis would have a ‘Children of the World’ collection of companion pieces of American (Jeremy/Jennifer), African/African-American (Jason/Jessica), Asian (Cheerful Dragon/Lotus Blossom), Native American (Little Eagle/Running Deer), and British (Edward/Victoria) children but fail to include a Latino brother/sister pair as well. Perhaps Manuel and Rosita?
There followed a short hiatus in the introduction of new child heads until 1985 which is when Valentine appeared. She was designed by Marylin Chorlton at the same time as Funny Face, for which she was intended as a companion, but not released at retail for another nine years. William Pae also contributed to this piece, by designing Valentine’s hair. Up to this point Funny Face had been gender-neutral, simply described as “Child Clown Head”; however, with the appearance of Valentine Cybis renamed the original piece to Funny Face (Boy Clown Head) to correspond to their new Valentine (Girl Clown Head) issue. This new introduction meant that all of the non-limited-edition child and baby busts were now considered to be male/female companion pieces. Valentine is 9.75” high overall and had an original price of $335.
Of course Cybis also offered Valentine with Holly. Like the holiday-counterpart Funny Face, the base on this version is white as well. She first appeared in Cybis advertising in December 1986 at $375, with the notation “available exclusively for the 1986 holiday season.” This was indeed the case until the early 1990s when the studio – now selling directly to the public – brought her out of retirement at almost double the original price.
It’s not surprising that when Cybis added their Hall of Fame Editions line in the early 1990s, they brought back their first two child heads as downsized replicas. Both of them were introduced in 1991 at $250 each. Cybis price lists offered them simply as Boy Head and Girl Head under the “Hall of Fame” section, and then later changed their titles to Head of Boy II and Head of Girl II.
This photo of a Head of Boy II next to an original Head of Boy illustrates the size difference. The HOF replica is 7.5″ high overall. There are also differences in the signature area; see the Hall of Fame post for details.
Name Index of Cybis Sculptures
Visual Index (for human figures/busts only)
About the Cybis Reference Archive
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