Well, after all of the hoopla surrounding the Cybis studio’s supposed (yes, there is definitely a question) Golden/50th Anniversary in 1989, it turns out that there was a little bit of revisionist history going on. Say what?!??
The Cybis Studio’s 40th Anniversary
In 1980, the Cybis studio incorporated “40th anniversary” into their advertising campaign. Obviously, this meant that the surviving owner – Joseph Chorlton – was designating 1940 as the founding year of the original studio by Boleslaw and Marja Cybis.
And indeed, the earliest physically-dated Cybis-branded items discovered to date (papka angels) are marked 1940.
A magazine article by Jerry Bowles began with this headline, which is certainly straightforward enough.
A very detailed four-page color leaflet created by the studio itself further bolstered their 40-year claim. Here are some relevant excerpts from the text:
..the Cybises were surprised at the lack of porcelain studios in America in the late 1930s. With this in mind, in 1940 they established Cybis Art Productions to create fine porcelain sculptures in the fashion of the European studios they remembered so well.
However, the claim that the 1940 studio was established in order to create porcelain items completely contradicts statements made during the 1970s by Marylin Chorlton (who was with Boleslaw and Marja Cybis continuously since the summer of 1939) in a newspaper interview. She stated unequivocally that
We didn’t start with porcelains. We were a fine arts studio, doing paintings, tapestries, designing furniture. Then Mr. Cybis found that no one in America was doing porcelain. The beginning pieces were crude. I don’t want to talk about them. It took about a year and half before we became confident and got all the refinements down.
This means that the Cybis studio did not begin to produce porcelain until sometime between 1941 and 1942. The papka items, including the dated angels, are not porcelain. Unfortunately, Marylin Chorlton had passed away three years before the publication of the 1980 article. The article goes on to say
To commemorate its 40th anniversary, Cybis has created a special sculpture entitled ‘The Bride’ which was inspired by one of Boleslaw Cybis’ paintings of the same name.
The final line of the article is
Even now, plans are being made for the golden anniversary in 1990.
The 50th/golden anniversary is to take place in 1990. Can’t make it any clearer than that, I think!
The studio’s Spring 1980 price-list cover also spelled it out unmistakably: Our 40th Anniversary.
On the back page, under ‘Publications’, it offers their most current catalog, Porcelains That Fire the Imagination, with the tagline 40th Anniversary Commemorative Issue. However, the catalog itself contains no specific mention of the 40th anniversary. There is also an odd chronological error on page nine:
Following American citizenship for him and his wife, Boleslaw Cybis opened a studio in the old Steinway Mansion…
However, the actual naturalization documents show that Boleslaw did not file a Declaration of Intention to become a citizen until July 1, 1942 (see the Timeline post for the actual document) and he was not granted American citizenship until November 25, 1949. I could not find a Declaration of Intention by Marja but did locate her naturalization record which is dated May 28, 1948. That said, Boleslaw Cybis did apply for what we would now call a ‘green card’ in March 1941 which allowed him to obtain a Social Security number. In any case, the launching of the first Cybis studio (at the Steinway Mansion) preceded even that event by a year! Thus, the catalog’s statement that Boleslaw Cybis became an American citizen before opening his first USA studio is completely incorrect.
Their marquee porcelain introduction for Spring 1980 was The Bride. She was put into the category of ‘Commemorative’ because the piece was intended to commemorate the Cybis studio’s 40th Anniversary.
Brielle Galleries, perhaps the Cybis studio’s largest and most influential retailer, devoted not only the cover but also the first seven full-color pages of their Spring 1980 catalog to Cybis, the introductory page having this unmistakable introduction: “in celebration of forty years…”
Given all this, I was very surprised that the two Cybis full-color brochures for Spring 1980 (the new-introductions brochure and a separate smaller one for The Bride) do not mention the 40th Anniversary at all. Not even a single word! The newest catalog iteration is pictured and advertised in those brochures, but without being described as an anniversary-commemorative issue, as it is described on the accompanying 1980 price lists. Very strange.
The studio also introduced a new display sign/plaque, which they included in their Spring 1980 price list, under the CYBIS Accessories heading, as
Cybis 40th ANNIVERSARY Porcelain Name Plaque, 3 ½” x 4”, white….$25
It remained available on the Fall 1980 and Spring 1981 price lists, but is not on the Fall 1981 list or any afterward.
The Studio’s 50th Anniversary = 1989??
Numbers have never been my strongest suit, but even I can figure out that if someone is 40 years old in 1980, they won’t hit the half-century mark until 1990. So, why did the Cybis studio decide to do ‘revisionist math’ and celebrate the studio’s 50th Anniversary in 1989 (one year early)?
It isn’t as if the 1939 founding-year was a typo. Everything from their brochures to their price lists and the specially-made backstamp suddenly proclaimed that the studio was founded in 1939 rather than in 1940. The alteration of the Cybis Studio’s founding year was deliberate.
The Probable Reason Why
Let me be clear: The following paragraph is speculation on my part, because neither I nor any of the surviving Cybis employees with whom I correspond were privy to the discussions that took place between the owners of the studio (Joseph and Theresa Chorlton) during the mid to late 1980s regarding the company’s fate. However, looking at the evidence, I can make an educated guess.
It was no secret that the studio’s financial situation had become dire by the mid-1980s. Attempts to right the sinking ship had failed, there were no lifeboats remaining, and the shoals of bankruptcy were perilously near. The Chorltons must have known that they would need to make even more drastic changes in their day-to-day operations sooner rather than later, but it was also imperative that their collectors and remaining retailers (and, perhaps, creditors) remain unaware of the situation. A marketing campaign centered around a ‘Golden Anniversary’ should spark collector interest and also promote the idea that the Cybis studio was one of the two long-term survivors in the American art-porcelain industry (the other being their rival, Boehm.)
The plan to lay off all their existing staff and temporarily close the studio at the end of 1989 must have been decided upon at some point in early 1988 in order to plan for the Spring 1989 introductions and their advertising materials which would need to go to print no later than late summer/early autumn 1988. The upcoming 1990 shutdown was a closely-guarded secret; none of the employees had any idea that it was going to happen. The push to create a decent stockpile of the eighteen Golden Anniversary introductions before the end of 1989 must have been huge.
Cybis did add three more Golden Anniversary-designated pieces in 1990 (Golden Thunder, Cinderella ‘Belle of the Ball’, and a decorative egg) and so they didn’t ignore their previously-announced (and far more logical) founding year entirely; they simply failed to mention the discrepancy between their anniversary claims. All of the 50th Anniversary design examples, whether introduced in 1989 or 1990, received the special backstamp which clearly says 1939-1989.
I personally believe that the Chorltons decided to alter the studio’s purported founding year to 1939 because they knew that in 1990 their entire business model (including that most important element: staffing) would drastically change. How much did the 50th-Anniversary marketing program really affect their bottom line? It’s impossible to know.
Of course, at this late date it doesn’t matter which year the studio originally began…although, just for the record, I believe it to have been 1940 based on the fact that Boleslaw and Marja Cybis did not take refuge in the USA until the final two months of 1939, and did not set up their first studio until early 1940.
Name Index of Cybis Sculptures
Visual Index (for human figures/busts only)
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