Another Cybis Nativity Series in the 1950s?

Another Cybis Nativity Series in the 1950s?

Isn’t it odd how one mystery can lead to another, entirely different, one? Such was the case with a puzzling single piece of Cybis that surfaced some months ago.  It was among a private collection being liquidated by the family of an enthusiastic collector who also knew the studio owners personally from the 1950s onward. [...]

Cybis Madonna Busts From the 1950s

Cybis Madonna Busts From the 1950s

Because my original 1950s-madonnas post has become so extensive, I have decided to spin off the busts and torso (non-full-figure) pieces into this separate post. The same comments apply for these as for the full figures, including that: almost all of the 1950s religious pieces were cast by Cybis from molds that they purchased from [...]

A Papka-to-Porcelain Angel by Marja Cybis

A Papka-to-Porcelain Angel by Marja Cybis

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 [...]

Will the Real Cybis Madonna Queen of Angels Please Stand Up?

Will the Real Cybis Madonna Queen of Angels Please Stand Up?

No, I’m really not pairing the chorus of Eminem’s The Real Slim Shady with a Cybis sculpture... even though there certainly were sufficient iterations to warrant it! Although the studio was never shy about borrowing pieces from one sculpture to help create another (see Body Snatching), this particular madonna bust not only kept popping up [...]

1950s Cybis Singing Angel Beauty Pageant

1950s Cybis Singing Angel Beauty Pageant

Although we know that Cybis used molds bought from other companies to produce almost all of their 1950s retail line, their local competitor Boehm seemed to have eschewed this practice – or so I thought until recently, when I found a singing-angel figurine made by both studios during that decade.  And they weren’t alone: at [...]