This year is the 13th in which I have chronicled Cybis porcelains and the studio that produced them; this month is also the 9th anniversary of the Cybis Archive, and you are reading the 300th new post uploaded to the site! The 100th post was my tribute to Marylin Chorlton, and the 200th provided a [...]
Author: The Cybis Archive
Everything you ever wanted to know about Cybis porcelain, in one place: cybisarchive dot com (This is not a commercial site, and there are no ads or pop-ups. Ever.)
Cybis Artist Profile: Anna Marie (‘Ginny’) MacCotter
I thought it fitting to devote my final Artist Profile to an artist who was a mainstay of the Cybis production process: Ginny MacCotter, who deserves credit for so much more than collectors ever knew. She was also one of the longest-serving and most devoted employees of the studio. She was born Anna Marie Magee [...]
Cybis at the Museum of American Porcelain Art
Even though it opened less than seven years ago, the Museum of American Porcelain Art (MAPA) currently has more pieces of Cybis porcelain in its holdings than any other museum in the world. It leads the other two of the Top Three public Cybis collections by a wide margin in terms of quantity. How did [...]
Remembering Brielle Galleries
SPECIAL NOTE: I originally wrote this post in 2017 for my personal blog site, which I discontinued a few years ago. Because Brielle Galleries was in large part responsible for kickstarting the Cybis studio's success, I have resurrected the post and added some new images and information. Most of us have a few special places [...]
Seven Cybis Wish-Lists
No matter how much someone may love a product, there's usually at least a small “But I really wish that....” caveat lurking somewhere. Perhaps that's even more true when the product is a form of art. I developed my own wish-list regarding Cybis and thought it would be fun to ask some collectors of my [...]
Cybis Edition-Size Reductions
Although Cybis always gave a 'Declared Edition' quantity when introducing each limited edition (with one exception: the Commemorative Bride in 1987), that number wasn't written in stone; the studio could revise it downward later, if they chose. What's a little surprising is the number of times they did choose. Some of the percentages were modest, [...]
Face-off: Cybis versus Boehm
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 [...]
The Cybis Home and Studio in Princeton
The most elusive pieces of documentation surrounding Boleslaw and Marja Cybis are photographs of the home/studio that they built on Greenhouse Drive in Princeton. Such photos (and films!) were stored in filing cabinets at the Norman Avenue studio; I have spoken to someone who saw and personally handled those documents during the 1970s. Unfortunately, when [...]
Cybis Artist Profile: Jolan Palmai
As an in-house Cybis artist during the 1970s and 1980s, Jolan Palmai (pronounced yo-lahn pal-mee) was known for her outstanding ability as a 'finisher': The person who performs the critical step of ensuring that the fine detail on a porcelain sculpture is as clear and sharp as it can possibly be. Some finishers also acted [...]
Cybis and Books: A Perfect Match
The Museum of American Porcelain Art has just launched their first off-site exhibit of Cybis porcelain, and the venue couldn't be more appropriate: a local public library. The Lee Road branch of the Cleveland Heights/University Heights library system, which was launched more than a century ago, moved into its current purpose-built location in 1968. Richard [...]
THE CYBIS ARCHIVE 