In addition to their various child/baby busts, nursery rhyme and fairytale characters, the Cybis studio produced many sculptures within their general category called 'Children to Cherish.' They were all non-limited editions. The pieces from the 1950s and 1960s predated this category concept which was introduced the following decade. On the 1963 price list, the only [...]
Cybis Porcelain had a long history of making giftware items, dating all the way back to the first decade of the Cybis operation. (The Cybis vases, wedding-themed items and decorative eggs appear in their own separate posts.) Boxes One of the earliest known boxes has one of the less common Cybis signatures: This 7" x [...]
After sorting through all of the various Cybis porcelain animals by genre (cats, dogs, bulls and bears, horses, woodlanders, denizens of the deep, carousel creatures, et al.) there were still a few that refused to fit into a category….and so here they are. One of the most impressive Cybis sculptures was the Dall Sheep. A [...]
One of the special commissions that is never found in any of the Cybis literature is the Spirit of Ecstasy that they produced in 1979. This was a very unusual piece in that it not only had a restricted distribution but also had numbered artist proofs. “Spirit of Ecstasy” is the actual name of the [...]
Wedding-themed items were relative latecomers to the Cybis retail lineup, not making their appearance until almost the end of the 1980s, with one exception which is noted under 'Wedding Giftware.' The Wedding Party The first Cybis bridal sculpture appeared in 1987, confusingly titled 50th Anniversary Bride. Standing a bit over 12" high, she was offered [...]
Among the various Cybis porcelain ‘genres’ (generalized categories) there is a small group called the Classical Impressions. All except two were limited editions, and most were introduced during the 1980s. Leda and the Swan is 9” high and 13” wide on its base and was a declared limited edition of 500 white bisque sculptures at [...]
Although a separate post examines the early (1940s) Cybis porcelain retail pieces, an unusual experimental design from approximately the same period has been discovered. These two items are unusual both in subject and in how they are marked. In the 1940s and 1950s it wasn't unusual for the Cybis studio to utilize molds purchased from [...]
As a gardener you’d think I’d loathe snails and as a person violently allergic to garlic you’d assume I also avoid them like the plague, gastronomically speaking – both are true, but with one notable exception: I once spent four years actively trying to acquire a specific snail (no, I’m not a malacologist either). It [...]
Almost all of the Cybis 'Portraits in Porcelain' are readily identifiable characters from Shakespeare, mythology, literature, or history. However, there are two that defy specific identification; one is from the 1980s and the other is a millennial. Sir Henry, the Knight was introduced in 1986 at $1500 as a limited edition of 350 sculptures. He [...]
Having covered the Cybis fairytale characters, we still have a separate group of sculptures created during the span of a decade and based instead on traditional nursery rhymes. Some of these were included in the 1980 hardcover book Poems for Children and Other People by George Hornby which was illustrated entirely with Cybis photographs. All [...]
THE CYBIS ARCHIVE 