Clarice Cliff

Cliff's Bizarre ware, launched in 1927 at the Wilkinson factory in Stoke-on-Trent, put Art Deco on the tea table: thick blocks of orange, yellow and green, crocuses and stylised cottages, and angular shapes such as the Conical sugar sifter and the flat-sided Stamford teapot. She started as an apprentice gilder, and her manager Colley Shorter backed her experiments. The painting was done freehand by a team of young women decorators, the Bizarre girls, whose quick brushwork gives each piece its life.