Although Cybis always gave a 'Declared Edition' quantity when introducing each limited edition (with one exception: the Commemorative Bride in 1987), that number wasn't written in stone; the studio could revise it downward later, if they chose. What's a little surprising is the number of times they did choose. Some of the percentages were modest, [...]
When one thinks of legendary cross-town rivalries, several come to mind. In hockey, there's the Islanders vs. the Rangers; in basketball, the Knicks vs. the Nets; in baseball, the Chicago Cubs vs. the White Sox...and, of course, the NY Mets vs. the Yankees. In the world of art porcelain, there was Boehm vs. Cybis. The [...]
The most elusive pieces of documentation surrounding Boleslaw and Marja Cybis are photographs of the home/studio that they built on Greenhouse Drive in Princeton. Such photos (and films!) were stored in filing cabinets at the Norman Avenue studio; I have spoken to someone who saw and personally handled those documents during the 1970s. Unfortunately, when [...]
The New Jersey State Museum (NJSM) in Trenton is one of the two institutions that contain the largest quantity of Cybis porcelains within their holdings. However, the histories of the museums, as well as the overall focus of their respective Cybis collections, are quite different. The NJSM, founded in 1895, is one of America's oldest [...]
A cache of vintage documents recently obtained from the Syracuse University holdings contained a surprise: Two additional named companies associated with the Cybis studio! These business entities/brands were created after the establishment of the Cordey China Company but before the formal registration of Cybis Porcelain as a business entity in the state of New Jersey. [...]
A few years ago, David Armstrong (of Armstrong’s Gallery, one of the major Cybis retailers during the boom years) sent me some Cybis press photos and marketing literature from the 1970s and early 1980s. One of the most interesting was the instruction sheet that the studio sent to the retail galleries who wanted to host [...]
The early 1960s saw the birth of what is recognized today as the Cybis Porcelain studio. After the deaths of Boleslaw and Marja Cybis in 1957 and 1958, the Cordey influence (as seen in the M.B. Cybis items) disappeared and the instances of Holland-Mold-based items waned. Original designs became the new focus. How did the [...]
This post will take us back a half century, to attend a state dinner at the White House in April 1975. The Cybis North American Indians sculptures served as the table centerpieces for this event. So, step into your friendly neighborhood time machine and let's go... Back to the 1970s A recent mail delivery contained [...]
During the early 1920s, Boleslaw Cybis had to flee his homeland and take refuge in Turkey. This period of time is very briefly mentioned in Cybis in Retrospect, but was a significant influence on his personal style. I recently translated some letters that the young artist of 25 wrote to his mother not long after [...]
The existence of some circa-1940s pieces that are dual-marked M.B. Cybis and also have the vertical monogram MC strongly suggests that the MC actually meant “Marja Cybis herself made this item.” This post collects all of the MC-marked pieces so far discovered; they are typically a sub-set of those that are marked M.B. Cybis, which [...]
THE CYBIS ARCHIVE 