When one thinks of legendary cross-town rivalries, several come to mind. In hockey, there’s the Islanders vs. the Rangers; in basketball, the Knicks vs. the Nets; in baseball, the Chicago Cubs vs. the White Sox…and, of course, the NY Mets vs. the Yankees. In the world of art porcelain, there was Boehm vs. Cybis.
The two powerhouse studios were operating mere city blocks from each other for most of their existence. Both had their fans, and I daresay that if anyone ever did claim to not have a favorite, they probably were simply trying to avoid an argument! Now that both studios have passed into history, let’s take a look at how they really stacked up against each other in an assortment of objective and subjective categories.
Oldest (first established) Studio = CYBIS
The first Cybis studio was set up in a few rooms rented inside the Steinway Mansion in Astoria, NY, in early 1940, adopting the name ‘Cybis Art Productions’. This year was acknowledged in 1980 when the studio based its spring ad campaign on it being their 40th Anniversary. (The reasoning behind their awkward walk-back attempt in 1989 is examined in this post.)
According to one source, Edward Marshall Boehm set up his first workshop, called ‘Osso Ceramics’, in 1949 in the basement of their home on Stokes Avenue in Trenton; but numerous other sources state that this happened in 1950. We’ll give Ed the benefit of the doubt and say 1949, but it’s a moot point because even so, Boleslaw beat him by nine years.
Oldest (registered corporation) Studio = CYBIS
Cybis Porcelains Inc. was registered as a domestic partnership corporation on November 6, 1953.
Edward Marshall Boehm Inc. was registered as a domestic partnership corporation on March 5, 1976.
I guess neither of them were in a hurry to do the paperwork!
Most Studio Locations = A TIE, with a caveat
Cybis had four: the Steinway Mansion, the two Church Street buildings right next to each other (thus counting as one; a later-acquired adjacent third building was used as a warehouse) in Trenton, the Cybis home studio in Princeton, and the final one on the corner of Norman Avenue and Oakland Street.
Boehm also had four: Stokes Avenue, Fairfacts (yes, the spelling is weird) Avenue which was later renamed Princess Diana Lane, and the two satellite studios in Malvern, England and in Llandow, Wales.
However, if we alter the parameters to ‘most studios operating concurrently’, then Boehm wins by a 3 to 1 margin. Cybis only operated one studio location at a time and simply moved from location A to location B. During the 1980s, Boehm had the Trenton studio plus Malvern and Llandow, all actively manufacturing. The two UK locations closed during the early 1990s.
Longest Lifespan = CYBIS
If we count the Cybis studio’s lifespan in terms of ‘final known introduction of a new retail item’, then that took place in 2008 with the Carousel Reindeer. From 1940 to 2008 is 68 years, with only one ownership change: Boleslaw and Marja Cybis to Marylin and Joe Chorlton. I knew someone who bought a sculpture in 2010 by sending a check to Theresa Chorlton at her home address, so in terms of verified sales, Cybis did make it to year 70 at least. The Cybis website existed until early 2019, although it’s impossible to know how many – or if any – actual sales were transacted after 2010.
As for Boehm, it operated under the original ownership (Edward/Helen Boehm) from 1949 to 2003 which is when Helen sold the business to Home Interiors & Gifts. That’s 54 years. Home Interiors operated it as a subsidiary named ‘EM Boehm Inc.’ until they (Home Interiors) declared bankruptcy in 2008; now we’re up to 59 years. Many of the items made during those five years under the Boehm branding were mass-produced offshore, although some were still made in Trenton. The Trenton operation was purchased by Sharon Parker in 2009; she ran it on a very limited basis until 2014 when it was permanently shuttered for non-payment of rent. So at the very outside, we end up with 65 years of the Boehm brand no matter who owned it.
Largest Number of Product Types Manufactured = BOEHM
If we look at the different general categories of pieces offered by Cybis, we find human figures, animals, birds, flowers, and – to a much lesser extent – décor items such as vases, bowls, holiday ornaments, bells and decorative plates/plaques. That’s nine if you count each décor category separately. All of those were physically manufactured by Cybis. (The Folio One lithograph series, although sold by Cybis, was consigned to a print shop for production.)
The Boehm studio produced sculptures in all of those nine porcelain categories, plus fish studies, jewelry, and pet cremation urns. Their Malvern studio also produced a complete range of holiday dinnerware and table accessories in a pattern called Chickadees and Holly, as well as multiple series of “collector plates” as various specific themes (birds of the world, flowers of the world, wild animals, etc.) with a regular annual release schedule and often offered in a subscription model via their retailers. Their Wales foundry produced bronzes (fittings and full figures) and a series of models of sailing ships in sterling silver and ormolu – a total of 16 product categories.
Both Boehm and Cybis designed porcelain head models for some dolls that The Hamilton Collection sold, but neither studio actually made them; the porcelain components were made in Asia for Hamilton.
Largest Lifetime Production Quantity = BOEHM
Although it’s impossible to know how many individual items these studios sent out of the door over their 60-plus years of operation, it’s obvious that Boehm wins this one. Not only did they have more manufacturing locations (the Trenton and the two Malvern studios were all turning out product at the same time for 20 years, while Cybis always had only a single studio) but they had more types of product. Boehm also partnered with the Hamilton Collection during the 1970s and 1980s to produce several series of collector plates and porcelain floral studies which Boehm manufactured themselves. Even though most Hamilton items were outsourced to offshore factories in Asia, those Boehm-partnered series were not. Boehm was able to do this because they had a porcelain factory on both sides of the Atlantic. Cybis never had any such arrangement or partnership. Combine this with Boehm’s wider range of product offerings, and we find that in this category it was a quantity blowout by Boehm…even before the business was sold to Home Interiors.
Most Often Selected as a Gift of State = BOEHM
Because online records aren’t available for every presidential administration from Eisenhower through Obama as far as gift-of-state lists, a precise count isn’t possible. However, the available records do indicate that Boehm items were chosen more often than Cybis. It’s likely that Helen Boehm’s friendly relationships with Mamie Eisenhower, Pat Nixon, and Nancy Reagan had much to do with this; there are quite a few accounts of her working personally with those First Ladies on projects.
In contrast, there is no evidence that Joe Chorlton personally knew or interacted with any POTUS, other than receiving an invitation to attend the two State Dinners at which Cybis porcelains were chosen as the centerpieces; one of those is re-created in this post. This difference in ‘networking’ undoubtedly accounts for Boehm having an edge when it came to the gift-of-state selection process.
The Field Widens….
The next categories are more subjective than the data-based ones above, but I think most collectors of either Cybis or Boehm would agree with their relevance. I call these the “who did the best job?” categories – and therein lies a challenge because in this the Boehm studio had a very unfair advantage: the Malvern studio.
The advantage is that the Malvern studio used fine English bone porcelain whereas the Trenton studio used American hardpaste porcelain, and there is a significant difference between the two materials. Bone porcelain is finer, thinner, lighter, and can produce floral elements that are much more realistic due to the superior level of hand-forming that cannot be achieved with hardpaste. This means that the made-in-England Boehm pieces almost always displayed better workmanship. Trenton Boehm and Malvern Boehm were not the ‘same studio’ in terms of product results, despite sharing a brand name. So, for these evaluations there are three studio contenders instead of two.
Best Florals = MALVERN BOEHM
Simply put: The reputation that Boehm flower sculptures attained during the 1970s was a result of the very high quality of the pieces made at Malvern. This does not mean that the Trenton Boehm florals are bad, but only that the Malvern ones are better. They are almost on a level with Royal Worcester (the gold standard) because not only were they using the same type of porcelain but often the Malvern Boehm artist had trained at RW to be a flower-maker. Also, it wasn’t unusual for one or more of the Malvern artists to spend some time in Trenton, teaching the NJ artists the tricks of the trade for making the best possible florals from the hardpaste that the Trenton studio people had no choice but to work with. This ‘extra help’ is why the Trenton Boehm floral studies squeak in as #2 overall.
Although Cybis – who obviously also used hardpaste – consistently did a fine job with the tiny flower and leaf decorations, the larger the bloom design became, the more apparent the difference is between them and Boehm. The most realistic Cybis flowers are those that in nature have simple forms or more substantial petals, such as the Calla Lily, Iris, Golden Clarion Lily and Christmas Rose. They are not ‘bad’, but they are definitely behind what Boehm was selling in this genre and as a result many of the Cybis florals appear clunky or heavy-handed beside Boehm’s (especially Malvern’s!) in a blooms-to-blooms comparison. IMHO, the best-quality flower that Cybis ever made is the Dahlia; it’s comparable to anything from Trenton Boehm, and can hold its head up – figuratively speaking – unashamed next to many Malvern designs.
Best Humans = CYBIS
The design genre where Cybis shines the brightest is the human figures. There is an ethereal lightness and grace about them, especially the Portraits in Porcelain, that Boehm was never able to match, even at Malvern. It’s one of those things that is difficult to describe but ‘you know it when you see it.’ This is not to say that every Cybis human figure was a smashing design success – many of those 1980s open-edition kiddies are nothing to write home about and one of the 1990s Indians is a downright embarrassment – but most of the quibbles have to do with decoration, especially the switch to incorporating airbrush painting during the 1980s instead of applying everything by hand.
Both of the Boehm studios come up short in this category, which is probably why they didn’t produce many. The best Boehm human figures were usually the OOAK pieces such as the one of Prince Philip playing polo (and which rumor says was sculpted by Patricia Eakin). For the retail market there were a few series of ballet pieces in plain white bisque with no applied decorations and, frankly, no personality either. Such figures were released in ridiculously large edition sizes (5000 or 7500) to compete in the same affordable-market space as all of the mass-produced-offshore ‘collectibles’ from the Franklin Mint, Danbury Mint, et al.
Best Animals = WINNER DEPENDS ON THE DECADE
The birds and animals ‘best per studio’ title swings back and forth depending on manufacturing decade. During the 1950s the small Boehm animals, which were original designs (whether sculpted by Edward Marshal Boehm or a freelancer), are of better overall quality than the Holland-Mold-cast pieces that Cybis was turning out. But as we move into the 1960s, with the Holland stock fading away, the playing field leveled out slightly, due in part to artist cross-over; for example, Patricia Eakin created sculptures for both studios. As for the in-house artists, could you easily choose a winner between Boehm’s ‘Adios’ and Lynn Brown‘s Thoroughbred in the horse-sculpture sweepstakes? But Boehm still had the animal advantage well into the 1960s because they simply were making more of them at that time. It wasn’t until the mid to late 1960s that Cybis began to broaden their focus out from people, birds, and flowers.
Fantasy equines, anthropomorphic animals, and the Carousel series were genres that Boehm didn’t really get into, so in the 1970s Cybis played catch-up in a big way. Animals weren’t really Malvern Boehm’s thing, although they did do a few; but they lost their best animal-and-bird sculptor, Christopher Ashenden, when the Lewises departed in 1979 to form Connoisseur and took Chris with them. During the 1980s, Cybis had freelancer Chuck Oldham which is why there were such impressive intros as the Arctic Fox, Humpback Whale, and the Dall Sheep. At the same time, Lynn Brown and Sue Eaton delivered a tag-team punch in both the limited and open edition animal introductions. And of course there were all those bunnies. And decorative variations of those bunnies. There were so many bunnies made at Cybis that the mold shop must have often looked like Watership Down!
Things leveled out again during the 1990s because of the Cybis ‘reorganization’ at the end of 1989; almost all of their animal introductions after 1990 were either pieces that had been created during the 1970s or 1980s, or were decorative variants of existing open editions. And honestly, the few newly-designed animals were not that great. Trenton Boehm, although still operating on a more normal footing than Cybis was in spite of having closed the two UK studios, wasn’t doing anything particularly fascinating with animals either…unless you count spraying them gold and giving them tiny gems for eyes, which was clearly a love-it-or-hate-it proposition.
So we can split this decision by saying that the 1950s and much of the 1960s were Boehm’s in terms of animals, but the pendulum swung toward Cybis during the 1970s and 1980s, and the quality issue settled out fairly evenly between them, after 1990.
Best Birds = BOEHM, but with a caveat
To be honest, this genre was Boehm’s to own. Cybis put themselves behind the eight-ball at the start, because during the 1950s Boehm was creating original bird sculptures while Cybis was using ready-made mass-produced molds instead. The decoration (painting) on some of the Cybis birds from this decade can be quite charming or even lovely, but the bird bodies were simplistic.
The 1960s was arguably the best decade for Cybis birds. Not only were they originals, but the studio had acquired some great talent in Lynn Klockner and (as freelancers) Sue Eaton and Chuck Oldham. Painters like Ginny MacCotter easily matched the best decorators that Boehm had on staff. What mostly put the Cybis birds at a disadvantage compared to Boehm were the floral elements that were part of most sculptures: Boehm had the advantage, especially during the 1970s and 1980s when the Malvern studio was operating and whose bone porcelain enabled them to create more lifelike wings, petals and leaves than could be achieved in the American material….especially when Ashenden was there. The spectacular 1972 flying ‘Barn Owl’ was one of his pieces (no florals there, but it doesn’t need any.)
That said, when it comes to the small non-limited-edition birds, it’s a toss-up based on style – especially when Boehm began producing several series of small or even tiny birds perched on bronze or gilt metal branches and leaves. Such combinations were trendy at the time, and Boehm also did it with at least one of their non-limited rose series. Some of the other small Boehm birds sit on a base that looks like an overturned Dixie cup. So, as far as the small birdies go, personal taste enters into the “best” evaluation quite a bit.
Although Cybis did make some wonderful birds, especially Oldham’s ‘KoosKoosKoos’ and Sue Eaton’s Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos, Boehm had quickly and firmly established themselves in the market’s mind as The Bird People. Which brings us to the final category:
Best Overall Marketing Strategy = BOEHM by a landslide
This one isn’t even close and it’s down to one person: Helen Boehm, who never met a marketing opportunity that she didn’t like and grab with both hands. She managed to convince the Metropolitan Museum of Art to buy and display two sculptures in its American Wing only a year after the studio had launched, and then wangled an invitation to meet First Lady Mamie Eisenhower at the White House a couple of years later in order to give her a Boehm bull. After the death of her husband in 1969, Helen regularly made substantial funding contributions to the Vatican, enabling the construction of a dedicated Edward Marshall Boehm Wing that opened in 1992. She orchestrated a huge Boehm exhibit in Moscow, opened by Raisa Gorbachev, during the Reagan presidency. She owned a championship polo team for six years; they were the first non-British team to win the Queen’s Cup in more than 75 years and she made sure that every newspaper in the USA published a photo of her bringing it home on the Concorde.
When Reese Palley opened his store on the boardwalk in Atlantic City in 1957, branding himself as “the merchant to the rich”, Boehm pieces were not only already on the display shelves but were a major focus of his inventory and advertising. Cybis didn’t get a foot in that particular door until 1973. During the 1970s, Helen established a second home in West Palm Beach and rubbed elbows with the society elite. Not content with having Boehm porcelains in a plethora of retail outlets nationwide, she also bought her own (the iconic Douglas Lorie Gallery on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach) and there was a Boehm gallery in both of the Trump Tower locations during the 1980s and 1990s. She was known as ‘The Princess of Porcelain’ because of her tireless promotion of Boehm. Even people who weren’t actual collectors were aware of the brand name.
In contrast, the Cybis studio was much lower-profile; they were also smaller, and so needed to figure out the most efficient use of their marketing resources. Their first national ad campaign didn’t happen until the 1970s, and most ads were placed by retailers rather than by the studio. The sweetheart deal with Brielle Galleries, whereby Brielle would routinely place full-color ads in high-end magazines such as Architectural Digest in exchange for a larger product allotment and prioritized deliveries, increased Cybis’ exposure but they never achieved the brand-name recognition that Boehm had established early on and never relinquished. In those pre-internet days there was a veritable tsunami of Boehm print ads constantly appearing, placed by Boehm itself as well as by retailers. It’s noteworthy that Boehm was still marketing nationally during the 1990s, whereas Cybis was not. In fact, I have never been able to find any Cybis full-color magazine ad after 1985…and only one of those, showing the Carousel Unicorn which was introduced that year. In what is probably not a coincidence, the final Cybis catalog was printed in 1986 and is little more than 22-page collection of recent-brochure product photos arranged in collages. However, by 1985 the Boehm studio had already published three hardbound books, including Helen Boehm’s memoir.
It is ironic, though, that despite all of the marketing effort expended by Boehm through the decades, the Cybis studio ended up with the largest number of years in business overall. So they must have been doing something right, at least. :-)
Name Index of Cybis Sculptures
Visual Index (for human figures/busts only)
About the Cybis Reference Archive
What is Cybis?
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The Cybis Archive provides the most comprehensive range of information about Cybis ever compiled 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 