After the retirement of their second 1950s nativity set, the Cybis studio did not offer anything in that genre until the 1982 introduction of a new series called The First Christmas. These are entirely different sculptures than the two sets produced during the 1950s and are original designs (not cast from commercial molds.) Three or four [...]
(Update, May 1, 2025: This post has been updated with new information and a revised title.) The Cybis studio produced three entirely different porcelain nativity sets. The first two sets were made during the 1950s and the third set began in the 1980s. This post discusses the second nativity set. In addition to the creche [...]
Cybis’ various representations of madonnas (old and newer), other religious figures and popes appear in other posts, but the studio also produced several Old Testament character portraits as well. All were limited editions and are shown below in chronological order by introduction year. The first of these was Moses ‘The Great Lawgiver’. It was an [...]
Turning now from the mythological and Shakespearean genres to a more wide-ranging overview of the literary characters as portrayed by Cybis, we find that quite a few of them are from the medieval era. The bust of Beatrice, from The Inferno, is 12” high overall and a limited edition of 700. Designed by Laszlo Ispanky, [...]
Continuing the review of Cybis’ literature-based portraits naturally leads to their interpretations of characters and creatures from Greek, Roman and Asian mythology. The actual appearance of the first two mythological studies is unknown. One, titled Greek Head, is known only from a single text list of names in the 1974 catalog; I am going to [...]
What better way to start a four-part review of the Cybis ‘literature-based’ studies than with their interpretations of Shakespeare’s immortal characters? I shall leave it to my readers to judge whether or not they think that The Bard would be pleased! But first a quick word about the "Portraits in Porcelain" as Cybis categorized them. [...]
The circus theme was a popular one for Cybis porcelain; it was represented continuously in both human and animal studies ever since the first two in that genre were introduced in 1975. Only four of the circus sculptures were declared to be limited editions. Barnaby, an open edition introduced in 1975, was originally named ‘Barnaby’ [...]
Although Cybis never created any sort of 'maritime collection', a selection of their sculptures do fit into a seagoing theme – so, why not? The very first sea-based Cybis is also the only piece they ever made that specifically depicts a fish, although two other much-later pieces do include a fish as a decorative element. [...]
Completing the trilogy of Cybis equine reviews are the nine horses which were part of their ‘Carousel Collection’ over the decades. In fact, the series itself began with a carousel horse in 1973. (The other carousel animals are shown separately.) All but one of the limited-edition carousel equines were sculpted by Susan Clark Eaton. Heights [...]
The horse was featured throughout the Cybis studio’s history; a few equines even appear as early Papka pieces created in the 1940s. This post will focus only on the ‘real’ horse studies; the mythological equines are shown in Unicorns and Pegasi, and the Carousel Horses are profiled separately as well. I have sorted these Cybis [...]
THE CYBIS ARCHIVE 