A beautifully decorated Clarice Cliff Orange Trees & House pattern Athens shape jug. The pattern coverage is excellent and covers all sides of the jug, leaving little of the honey-glazed background showing. The little cottage tucked away behind the bubble bush features on both sides and both are beautifully executed, as are the alpine style trees.

It has brilliant, bright paintwork and is free from chips, hairlines or restoration. The underside is stamped "Fantasque Hand Painted Bizarre by Clarice Cliff Newport Pottery England", and it's a good early one, dating to around 1929. The first two images show both sides of the jug. 

History

Clarice Cliff (1899 – 1972) is one of the most renowned and accomplished ceramic designers of the twentieth century, and her ground-breaking Bizarre ware created from late 1927 through to the mid-to-late 1930s has - quite understandably - achieved worldwide recognition. Born in Tunstall, Stoke On Trent, UK, the heart of The Potteries, the ambitious Clarice Cliff worked her way up from modelling, gilding, outlining and enamelling in various ceramic producing factories until she became art director at A J Wilkinson, aged 30; unheard of, and a first, for a women - not a man - to be in such a senior position and in a highly prestigious firm.

Clarice was then given her own studio at the adjoining Newport Pottery, where she experimented with on-glaze enamel colours on factory seconds that had imperfections. Her Original Bizarre patterns were based around triangles, big and bold, which hid any defects to the bodies of the ceramics, and, more importantly, because they trail-blazed the new modern jazz-age look, which other UK potteries had failed to embrace, they proved to be an instant success. Clarice then developed her own ground-breaking modern shapes (that we now call Art Deco) to tie in with a vast range of her newly designed patterns, from stylised landscapes - such as "Trees & House", as offered here - to bold cubist, geometric and abstract designs that she developed from 1928. It is no wonder that her work is so fervently sought after, and has been since the 1970s. It’s full of such joy, such style and such fun - and nothing then or since can compete with its unparalleled uniqueness.

Trees & House

Released in 1929 as part of the Fantasque range, Clarice Cliff's Trees & House (formerly known as Alpine) was Clarice's first true landscape pattern, the beginnings of her "cottage and trees" style that captured the cosiness and comfort of the English countryside. It was issued in red and orange colour-ways, and in a seven colour-way, and was produced, unwittingly, in a number of styles, as at least four out-liners simultaneously painted it to satisfy demand - and as time went on and production was stepped up, the pattern became drawn and painted more vigorously. Trees & House became Clarice's signature landscape and was sold on every pattern shape, from traditional through to Clarice's own geometric designs, and established Fantasque as an entirely different range from Bizarre, and really put Clarice Cliff on the map.  It is quintissential Clarice Cliff.

It is now a highly collectible landscape design and was produced from late 1929 until 1933. Featuring a stylised cottage tucked behind a bush, with alpine trees on an undulating lawn, it is renowned for its hand-painted vibrant orange, black and green colour palette. The pattern embodies Clarice’s Fantasque beginnings, when her vision moved from the Original Bizarre geometric patterns of triangles and lozenges to stylized landscapes, and remains one of her most sought-after cottage landscapes today. Our Athens shaped jug offered here is a beautiful example of Orange Trees & House and is brilliantly painted.

Material: glazed earthenware

Manufacturer: Wilkinson Ltd, UK

Designer: Clarice Cliff 

Year of manufacture: 1929

Dimensions: Height 13cm  Diameter 8.5cm  Diameter from handle to pouring lip 11.5cm

Condition: Excellent, with no restoration, chips or hairlines.  If one had to be really picky, there are some very fine scuffs to the orange banding at the base of the jug. See images.