This is an expansion of/addendum to my July 2021 post explaining the nine different reasons that a piece of Cybis porcelain might have been marked AP (which most people would assume means ‘artist proof’ but – as that Archive post explains – on Cybis pieces it probably does not actually mean that.)
I am often asked whether an AP-marked Cybis is ‘worth more’ than a piece that isn’t, whether that other piece is an example of the same sculpture or is another Cybis piece entirely. The answer is simple:
The mere presence of AP (or A.P.) on a Cybis sculpture does NOT increase that piece’s market value.
However, it certainly did do so during the boom years of the art porcelain industry, but that was then and this is now. People are – or should be – aware of the disparate (and sometimes unfortunate) ways in which the Cybis studio employed those letters. Unfortunately, most people assumed that AP meant ‘one of a kind’, and even nowadays I see sellers claiming that such a piece is “the artist’s proof”, thus somehow implying that it was physically created by its designer.
The reality is that most pieces that were marked AP are no different in appearance from every retail example of that sculpture. If the piece is painted differently, it might be OOAK (one of a kind) but there are also such pieces that are not marked AP. I own one such piece myself; it is a Lady and the Unicorn that was painted by the studio according to my very specific color instructions during the early 1990s. It is definitely one of a kind, but it is not marked AP. I also have two other different-colorway pieces of Cybis that are marked AP, but there is no way to know whether the studio made any additional examples in those same colors. Perhaps those two are the only ones that were ever painted in that way…but then again, maybe they aren’t.
This is only one of several issues that render the AP designation on a Cybis so vague that it becomes meaningless. A meaningless factor has no effect on an item’s market value/intrinsic worth.
So, What Does Affect the Market Value of a Cybis Porcelain?
The primary no-brainer factor is condition: A damaged piece is rightly perceived to be worth less than an undamaged one.
But what about a Cybis piece that is marked AP (with or without having an individual sculpture number on it as well) and also is visually different from the standard production run? Is it ‘more valuable’ compared to a standard-color piece that is not marked AP?
Yes, if someone likes that particular different colorway enough to pay more for that one than they would spend on a standard-color one. But even if that’s the case, they are basing their (entirely subjective) decision on the decoration difference…not on the fact that the piece happens to be marked AP.
A great example is a different-colorway King Arthur that recently sold. The auctioneer’s photo of the signature area was taken at an angle from which the AP was not visible, and their description said only “Marked on the base.” The winning bidder had no idea that it was marked AP until it arrived; obviously that mark had no bearing on how much he was willing to spend for that sculpture.
Nowadays, with the selling prices of vintage art porcelain being so much lower than in the 1960s-1980s, the two factors that influence the objective market value of any Cybis sculpture are (a) appearance/condition and (b) total quantity produced, or perhaps more accurately although unknowable: Quantity surviving…because porcelain is a very fragile medium!
Name Index of Cybis Sculptures
Visual Index (for human figures/busts only)
About the Cybis Reference Archive
What is Cybis?
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