This post will delve into what the owners of Cybis did to commemorate the 50th decade of the studio’s operation. Some of their choices are rather open to interpretation! In the autumn of 1939, Boleslaw and Marja Cybis were traveling back to their home in Poland after completing their work on the Polish Pavilion at [...]
Are you a book-lover? I’ve been one all my life, although my home library has had to be pared down to only 281 (as of today; I have a few more on pre-publication order) due to limited space, and I’ve no desire to join the digital-book brigade. For several reasons, e-books simply aren’t for me. [...]
Collectors of art porcelain may not have known Patricia Eakin’s name, but they were undoubtedly familiar with her work. She was yet another of the unsung heroes of the industry. Patricia Jean Eakin was born on October 25, 1914 in Virginia. She had an older sister, Kathleen, and would have a younger brother, Birch, after [...]
I am occasionally asked for advice regarding the best venue in which to offer any of the Cybis North American Indians series. My reply always begins with this sentence: “Well, those can be a bit tricky." The purpose of this post is to explain why. One reason is that the subject of the series (Native [...]
Certain Cybis porcelains are known for having alternate decorative retail versions of the originally-issued piece. The bunnies are a prime example, especially Bunny ‘Bon Bon’ who can boast having 13 of them! I have also found seven versions of Bunny ‘Snowflake.’ The creation of variants/spinoffs was less common among the human sculptures, however. The human [...]
Ever since I stumbled across a decades-old newspaper article snippet about a charity event held in May 1978, I have been keeping an eagle eye out for any of the 50 specially-decorated whimsical animals that Cybis created for that benefit's auction. I have only come across a photo of one of them, which – as [...]
One of the most noted freelance sculptors of Cybis bird and animal studies was Charles Oldham, affectionately known as ‘Chuck.’ He was born in 1950 in Philadelphia and lived there until the age of eight, displaying an innate talent for sculpting by fashioning items even in grade school and with no formal training. His high-school [...]
Although there is an Archive post showing examples of the Cybis studio’s publications and advertising, I did not delve into the actual relationship that Cybis had with its retailers. It turned out to be quite an interesting case study. The history of ‘modern’ (i.e., recognizable by most people) Cybis begins in the late 1950s, when [...]
I recently became aware that the New Jersey State Museum, which holds one of the largest surviving collections of Cybis porcelain, mounted an exhibit of 100 sculptures in memory of Marylin Chorlton. The curator of the collection was kind enough to send me the list of the pieces that formed the exhibit, which was held [...]
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 [...]
THE CYBIS ARCHIVE 