Occasionally I am asked whether a collection, or a particular example, of Cybis porcelain should be insured. Two decades ago, my answer would have been “yes”; nowadays, it is an equivocal “it depends...” Let’s take a look at the available options using a limited-edition example: the Eagle Dancer. It retailed for $4000 in 1984, and [...]
Many of the inquiries I have received during the past five years of the Archive’s online existence have begun with “I have a [name of Cybis sculpture], can you tell me how much it is currently worth?” A very understandable question, and one that I have answered privately via return email because of an agreement [...]
From a collector’s point of view, the issue size of a limited-edition item is of major importance; it’s therefore disconcerting if the artist or manufacturer plays fast and loose with that particular attribute. The concept of marketing retail items as “limited editions” didn’t become widespread until the 1960s. The Boehm Porcelain studio was one of [...]
Way way back in the Dark Ages B.E. (Before eBay), there were only two avenues for selling a piece of Cybis porcelain if you weren’t a retailer who was part of the Cybis Studio’s dealer network: You either placed an advertisement in the classified-ads section of a newspaper, or if you had a working relationship [...]
Occasionally I receive inquiries from people asking for advice on pricing or valuing a piece of Cybis that they have received or wish to sell, and they sometimes ask why there is no indication of the actual current market value in my description of each piece in the Archive. The simple answer is that until [...]
You might see any of the following words used to describe Cybis pieces: Open, Completed, Retired, Variation, Special Edition, Numbered Special Edition, Event Piece, Limited Edition, Special Commission, Gift of State, and Artist’s Proof. What do they all mean? The edition type had an influence on a sculpture’s original retail price and its market value [...]
