Born in 1899 she began work in the Pottery Industry at the very young age of 13 as a gilder.
Her talents developed on the factory floor and at Art School will have been obvious to the owners and management at A.J. Wilkinsons, a ceramics business based in the heartland of British Pottery in Burslem, Stoke on Trent .
Between the years 1922 to 1963 her designs in the Art-Deco style were a good proportion of the production line of Wilkinsons but were regarded by the buying public as more functional than collectable.
It was a very labour intensive process particularly as the images and decorative embellishments were all hand painted, where before they had been of applied transfers, mainly by a female workforce who became known after the title of the Cliff Collection as the Bizarre Girls.
The story goes that Clarice Cliff was an avid radio listener and evening broadcasts of jazz inspired her Age of Jazz earthenware. They were something new in that they were slabs of clay moulded into an outline which when painted became magical depictions of paired dancers doing the waltz and tango movements as well as accompanying musicians on such instruments as the jazz piano and banjo.
It is thought that their intended use was to be placed decoratively on a table top around the home wireless set as a playful visualisation of the music which would be well received in the pre-television age.
They were the epitomy of the decorative arts of the 1920's and 1930's.
Cliff was also influenced by the French Ceramicist Robert Lallement and the Parisian retailer Robj.
However, the Age of Jazz figures were not an immediate success in commercial terms.
They just wouldn't sell.
The production manager at the time was faced with the prospect of having to recall the unsold stock and in a state of desperation over 100 pieces were offered to the barrow boys at the factory for the knock down price of sixpence each. They were not of any interest even to the potential wheeler dealers and entrepreneurs so employed and what must have been a difficult decision in accepting defeat was made.
A large hole was excavated somewhere on the Burslem site and in went the Age of Jazz figures.
That act of industrial vandalism in fact contributed to the extreme rarity of the art works into the future. It is not known if the location of the dumping ground for the figures was ever recorded or if any made it back into circulation.
Clarice Cliff Pottery enjoyed a revival amongst collectors in the 1970's which followed the usual pattern of a resurgence only after the passing of the artist. Cliff died in 1972.
Wedgewood Pottery brought out Age of Jazz copies over a period of 4 years from 1992 to meet public demand.
To date the record price paid for an original has peaked at £15000 (2018) at auction with a guide price of £3000 to £5000.
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