Let's play Twenty Questions with a potpourri of Q and A about Cybis porcelains. :-) How do you pronounce CYBIS? It is pronounced see-biss. There is a software company by the same name but their name is pronounced sigh-biss, as in "cyber." Will sunlight fade the colors of a Cybis porcelain? No, the colors will [...]
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 Porcelain Publications and Advertising Materials
Before the internet era, the print medium was the only way for art porcelain studios to 'get the word out' to collectors and potential buyers. In addition to newspaper advertising placed by their network of retail galleries, Cybis maintained a steady stream of publications from the early 1960s to the mid 1980s. The Boleslaw Cybis [...]
The Cybis Blair House Indians
For the past several months I've been 'digging' into an unusual story, trying to separate fact from fiction. This particular investigative endeavor involves a set of Cybis' North American Indians sculptures. The story begins in the early 1970s, most likely 1972 or 1973. Several newspaper articles about the Cybis studio mentioned that a set of [...]
Cybis Porcelains ‘Before and After’
The transformation from the artist's initial clay model to the finished retail product was something that collectors rarely had a chance to see and appreciate. Shown below are "before and after" photos of a baker's dozen Cybis designs, contrasting their initial (or early) stage with the sculpture that ultimately appeared on the retailer's shelf. Original [...]
Cybis Artist Profile: William Pae
A veteran artist of the Cybis studio's 'golden age', William Pae has always been a man of many talents: sculpture, painting, drawing, woodworking and even in the baseball field (but more about that later.) If you have even a nodding acquaintance with Cybis porcelain you've seen his work even though – as was studio policy [...]
Cybis 1970s Print Reproductions of 1930s Polish Historical Dress Drawings
The Cybis studio created two very different sets of lithographs (reproductions) of drawings originally done in the 1930s by Boleslaw Cybis. One set is the well known Folio One set of Native American portraits; that set is illustrated and documented in the studio's catalogs published during the 1970s. The other set is far less known [...]
Cybis Artist Profile: Lynn Klockner Brown
Lynn Klockner Brown was one of the most prolific and longest-resident artists at the Cybis studio, creating more than 60 of their sculptures, 43 of which were limited editions. She designed in all of their genres but had a special affinity for the equine sculptures as well as the Portraits in Porcelain. Born in Lawrenceville, [...]
Decoding Cybis and Cordey Design and Mold Numbers
The two Boleslaw Cybis porcelain lines (Cordey and Cybis) both utilized a number system for their production but approached them in different ways. A working knowledge of both can be helpful when trying to identify the 1950s output of the Cybis branded items in particular. The Cordey Numbering System Cordey items often contain an embarrassment [...]
An Unusual (Sort Of) Cybis Bearded Man Bust circa 1940s
The coexistence of the Cordey and Cybis studio lines during the 1940s occasionally resulted in some interesting 'crossover' pieces. One such piece is a bust of a bearded elderly man, perhaps a sage, signed MC indicating it was by Marja (a/k/a Maria) Cybis, wife of Boleslaw. This piece sold online in 2011 and these four [...]
The Cybis Angelic Orchestra
Among the unusual 1940s 'papka' composition figures by Cybis is a charming group of six angels, each playing an instrument, called the Angelic Orchestra. They were listed, but not pictured, in the 1971 museum exhibit catalog Cybis in Retrospect. Each angel is approximately 14" high and dates from the earliest years of the Cybis studio. [...]
THE CYBIS ARCHIVE 