This is a brief 'status' update regarding new Archive postings. Because of some medical issues that have increasingly diminished my ability to look at electronic screens, I will not be adding new posts to the Archive for the next few months. Upcoming surgeries and other medical interventions should result in an improvement in early to [...]
Author: The Cybis Archive
Three ‘Named’ Cybis Porcelain Pieces (Sometimes)
A rule of thumb regarding Cybis porcelains production was that – unlike many other studios – they did not physically put the name/title of the design on the piece itself. In fact, until a couple of years ago, I would have gone so far as to say they never did so...until I discovered three designs [...]
Cybis Porcelain Tableware
Tableware (plates, bowls, cups, etc.) isn’t the type of product one normally associates with Cybis, but during the 1940s – and, to a much lesser extent, the 1980s – there were more such items than you’d probably expect. Let’s take a look at the known Cybis tableware items by genre. Plates In this case, ‘plates’ [...]
Useful Tips for Buying Cybis Porcelain Online
After the closure of the studio, the so-called ‘secondary’ market became the only way to buy Cybis porcelains. Truth be told, the majority of pieces have been sold that way for the past two decades; even when the studio had a website, their prices were so much higher than anyone else’s that their percentage of [...]
An Unexpected Early Cybis ‘Couple’
Because there are relatively few surviving records of the first decade of Cybis porcelain retail items, it’s always exciting when something comes to light that was never mentioned in any of their publications. Invariably, the circa-1950s human figures turn out to be religious subjects: a madonna, a saint, or a Jesus figure. So, when an [...]
Cybis Porcelains in Public Collections
The Cybis studio published three lists that were titled ‘Cybis Porcelains Are in the Following Collections’. The first one appeared on the final page of the 1970 Cybis catalog and contains 24 names of museums and art centers; there are no governmental/state recipients listed, even though several Cybis pieces were presented to foreign leaders as [...]
A Mystery Series of Cybis ‘International Children’?
Earlier this year, an Archive reader alerted me to an unusual Cybis child figure and asked what it was. It appears to have been part of a numbered series of child figures representing different countries, but which were very different from the ‘Children of the World’ retail portrait busts. The child figure itself was taken [...]
Unusual Cordey Lamps
Although there are several Archive posts showcasing some unusual or odd Cordey figurines, I decided that a similar post about Cordey lamps would be an interesting companion. A few of them still have their original lampshades, just as they were sold during the 1940s or 1950s. We’ll start this overview with a bang, and a [...]
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