I recently discovered, via a Polish tourism site, an article from 10 years ago about a circa-1940s ‘lady head bust’ made at the early Cybis studio. It was in a small museum in the village of Kazimierz – a town familiar to anyone who has read the 1920s Paintings or the Timeline posts. Boleslaw Cybis [...]
Because more and more 1940s items signed M.B. Cybis have shown up online during the past couple of years, this new Archive post is bringing them all together in one place. It will also examine the mystery of why some M.B. Cybis items were numbered but the others were not! All of the M.B. Cybis [...]
Hallowe’en is just around the corner; what better time to present a screamingly garish example of a dual-signed (Cordey and M.B. Cybis) lady bust? Although most Cordey pieces were not exactly shrinking violets when it came to design, I was truly taken aback by the color choices on this one – especially because it is [...]
In 2016, when I wrote my ‘All at Sea’ post describing the various ocean-related Cybis porcelains, I ended it with this sentence: Regarding other denizens of the deep, Cybis never chose to portray (as did Boehm, several times) any fish as the piece’s main subject — which does seem like rather a missed opportunity! Well, [...]
The liquidation of the Cybis studio’s backstock in 2019 brought to light a collection of female (lady head) busts made during the 1940s. These fell into two general categories: (a) papka and/or mixed media prototypes or one of a kind designs, and (b) busts that were cast from a basic head/neck mold and then variously [...]
When researching Cybis porcelain it is rarely possible to point to two different sculptures and definitively state “This became that” in its entirety (body-snatching doesn’t really qualify, although numerous instances of that practice have been found.) This is especially true when it comes to the earliest (1940s) pieces, many of which were either one of [...]
One of the most enjoyable things about creating the Cybis Archive has been hearing from readers who have questions about Cybis or information to share. This is particularly true in regard to the 1940s and 1950s pieces, many of which were either never documented by Cybis or their original information has been lost. An especially [...]
If I were to combine the words ‘Cybis’ and ‘lamp’, you’d probably assume I was referring to a Cordey item....and in most cases you’d be right. The lamps that came out of the Church Street studio were usually Cordeys, but surprisingly there was at least one lamp that emerged with a Cybis signature and entirely [...]
Despite the pieces having been produced in the same studio, it’s usually easy to distinguish Cordey and Cybis from each other by sight; their styles were very different. Most Cordey items were Old World/European/Dresden in flavor, while the first-decade Cybis retail pieces were either religious (most) or animals and birds (some.) They were also marked [...]
Recently an Archive reader sent me photos of two charming little papka figures made by Marja Cybis in the early 1940s (1940-1942) while the studio was in the Steinway Mansion. Although best recognized for her papka angels – such as the Angelic Orchestra – these figures are in her whimsy/folk-art style. My first reaction [...]
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