Despite the pieces having been produced in the same studio, it’s usually easy to distinguish Cordey and Cybis from each other by sight; their styles were very different. Most Cordey items were Old World/European/Dresden in flavor, while the first-decade Cybis retail pieces were either religious (most) or animals and birds (some.) They were also marked differently: Cordey pieces were impressed and/or paint-stamped “Cordey” while Cybis pieces were marked as shown in the Signatures and Marks post.
Or at least most of them were marked differently.
Every once in a while a piece shows up bearing both Cordey and Cybis markings. These items would have been made in the Trenton shop rather than in the Philadelphia factory which did not produce any Cybis-branded items. All of the dual-marked items have the typical ‘Cordey look.’
NOTE: Items that are dual-marked M.B. Cybis and Cordey are all contained in a new post about M.B. Cybis pieces specifically. The pieces shown below are only those that are marked Cordey and also have a Cybis paint-stamp as well.
Cordey mold or paint stamp + Cybis paint stamp
Cordey pieces that also bear the stamped (not hand-signed) Cybis name are most likely from between 1949 and 1953. I’m arbitrarily drawing the line at 1953 because the Cordey operation was sold during the mid 1950s, by which time the Cybis retail line was in full swing on its own.
Both of these cats have the Cordey mold impression but only one (the smaller of the two) is also stamped Cybis.
Next we have a pair of Cordey busts commonly found in various types of decoration, headgear, and gender. “Gender” because the head molds were androgynous, depending entirely on the chosen decoration as to whether they ended up as the lady or gentleman of the pair!
The Cordey design numbers for these busts were 4013 (male) and 4014 (female.) Sometimes a letter such as P or B was added to indicate whether the dominant colorway was to be pink or blue. They are about 7” high if not wearing hats.
Here is a hatless pair. Although at first glance they appear to be only stamped Cybis, photo enhancement reveals that on the opposite side of the hole both have a faint Cordey impression, indicated here by red circles. And these are without doubt typical Cordey busts. Note the difference in the face shapes. Here the woman’s face is slimmer and the man’s rounder.
Below are some additional examples of this same bust pair but with hats added. All of these are marked only Cordey but they are good examples of how the dual-signature pair fits right in with these.
This Cordey-marked pair is essentially the dual-marked one with the addition of hats, although the face shapes appear to be reversed; the man’s is slimmer and the lady’s is rounder. This was easy to do because the heads and busts are separate molds. I’ve seen many online sellers describe a #4013 Cordey as being a woman, especially if ‘dressed’ in an elaborate lace front!
Perhaps the dual-signature items were a simple case of production goofs, but it’s also possible that those were produced before Boleslaw and Marja Cybis had fully decided what the Cybis retail line was going to contain. They may have briefly considered using Cordey only for lamps and switching all the figurines to the Cybis branding, or even discontinuing the Cordey name altogether in favor of Cybis. So, things may have been in a state of flux in the late 1940s regarding their retail focus. It was eventually decided that the 1950s Cybis line would use mass market (commercial) molds in primarily the religious genre while Cordey pieces would continue as lamps and the Euro/Old World style. In fact I have seen only ONE religious piece marked Cordey, and it was a mold that Cybis re-used in 1957 as the House of Gold madonna and child. (The Cordey example is not dual-marked.) Some online sellers include the name Cybis in their Cordey listings in case shoppers happen to collect both, but that does not necessarily indicate that the item for sale is actually dual-marked.
Name Index of Cybis Sculptures
Visual Index (for Cybis human figures/busts only; no Cordey)
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 