ART DECO ORIGINALS FOR SALE

We will list Art Deco originals FREE of charge for our clients. We will charge 10% for any sales generated.

We will list Art Deco Furniture, Mirrors, Lighting, Ceramics and Glass, Bronze Figures, Textiles & Carpets, Clocks, Jewellery and metalware.

Please EMAIL for details.

FOR ART DECO ACCESSORIES AND INTERIORS, VISIT 'THE ART DECO HOME'

On this page you will find a selection of Art Deco originals. Please scroll down the page to see a selection of original Clarice Cliff ceramics. We can send full condition reports and additional images upon request.

FURNITURE

ART DECO CHEVAL MIRROR

Beautiful quality Art Deco dressing mirror, in blond burr elm. The reverse of the mirror is also veneered.

Height 1.640, Width 0.720, Depth 0.270

Price SOLD (ADF2)

ART DECO NEST OF TABLES

Fine quality nest of 3 Art Deco tables, in sycamore and satinwood, made by the Token Works.

Height 0.560, Width 0.610, Depth 0.470 (largest table)

Price SOLD (ADF1)

ART DECO BRONZES & SCULPTURE

COMING SOON!

ART DECO CERAMICS

SUNRISE Vase by Clarice Cliff in the Sunrise pattern and shape# 341. Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. Size 5 inches tall and 19 inches around the widest part. Signed "Fantasque by Clarice Cliff". Price £775/$1525.

FOREST GLEN Sugar Sifter by Clarice Cliff in the Forest Glen pattern and Bonjour shape. Size is 5 inches tall. Minor stress line underneath were red cork fits. Only marked "Newport Pottery England". Price £565/$1149.

UMBRELLAS & RAIN Shape 342 Vase in the Umbrella & Rain pattern. Size is 8 inches tall. Nicely painted and banded. Back-stamp is Fantasque by Clarice Cliff in large handwritten script. Invisibly repaired chip to rim. Price £625/$1225.

SUNRISE Athens Jug/Pitcher in the Sunrise pattern. This is the largest size at 8 inches tall. No damage or restoration. Back-stamp is Fantasque by Clarice Cliff in large handwritten script. Size number 24. Price £745/$1450.

GIBRALTAR Large Leda shape plate in the Gibraltar pattern. Size is 9.5 inches wide. No damage or restoration. Couple of minor utensil marks. Back-stamp is Fantasque Bizarre by Clarice Cliff. Price £545/$1055.

SUNRAY Athens Jug/Pitcher in the Sunray pattern. Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. Size is 6 inches high. Size number 42. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £895/$1745.

GIBRALTAR Bowl by Clarice Cliff in the Gibraltar pattern. This is the larger size bowl and is pictured next to the smaller size of this shape. Size of this piece is 4.5 inches wide by 3.75 tall. No damage or restoration. Signed Bizarre by Clarice Cliff. 5 yachts on the pattern. Price £565/$1095.

Umbrellas & Rain Conical Teapot by Clarice Cliff in the Umbrellas & Rain pattern. Signed "Fantasque by Clarice Cliff". Size 4.5 inches tall by 7 inches wide. This is the smaller size Conical Teapot. Slight repair to inner rim of lid. Price £565/$1095.

ORIGINAL BIZARRE Lotus jug by Clarice Cliff in an Original Bizarre pattern. Size is 11 inches tall. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff" in large handwritten Script. Also has "Lotus/Shape" and "Reg 668241" impressed on the base. Dates to about 1928. No damage or restoration. Has had some repaint to the Blue and Purple. See the matching Bowl on the £200 to £300 page. Price £645/$1250.

WHISPER ISIS VASE Vase by Clarice Cliff in the Whisper pattern and Isis shape. Size is 10 inches tall. Excellent condition. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff" in large script. Price £895/$1745.

ALTON Very tall Vase in the Alton pattern. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Size is a massive 18.5 inches tall. No damage or restoration. Condition is superb. Price £1350/$2635.

FRAGRANCE Stamford Teapot in the Fragrance pattern. c1935. Size 6 inches tall. Nicely painted. Good condition. Only flaw is a factory grind to underneath of the spout, which I am having re-glazed. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £850/$1650.

CROCUS STAMFORD Teapot by Clarice Cliff in the Crocus pattern and Stamford shape. Has the early Angular spout (later refined into the Teardrop shape). Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. Paintwork is excellent. Size 4.5 inches tall. Couple of very small circular firing flaws to the top. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £685/$1265. SOLD.

Stamford Teapot Stamford shape Teapot in the Stamford pattern. Size 4.5 inches tall. No damage or restoration. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". From the early 1930's. Price £545/$1050.

RED PICASSO FLOWER Serving Bowl (10.5 inches) and two smaller bowls (6 inches) in the Red Picasso pattern. Excellent condition. Painting is truly superb. Each has "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff" back-stamp. Larger Bowl SOLD. Small bowls £265/$515 each.

Feather & Leaves Athens Jug/Pitcher in the Feather and Leaves pattern. Size 7 inches high. Superb condition. No damage or restoration. Signed "Fantasque by Clarice Cliff". Price £775/$1500.

FOREST GLEN Conical Sugar Sifter in the Forest Glen pattern. Size 5.5 inches high. Very nicely painted. No restoration. Couple of minor nicks to the underside of the base. Signed "Clarice Cliff". Price £1100/$2145.

LATONA TREE Conical Trio cup/saucer/plate) in the Latona Tree pattern. Plate 7 inches wide. Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. Signed "Clarice Cliff" and "Bizarre". Price £695/$1345.

FOREST GLEN Large Jardiniere by Clarice Cliff in the Forest Glen pattern. Size 7 inches tall and 7.5 inches wide. Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. Signed "Clarice Cliff". Being very critical slight rubbing to the inside. Price £965/$1875.

ORANGE LILY Vase by Clarice Cliff in the Orange Lily pattern and shape# 341. Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. Size 5 inches tall and 19 inches around the widest part. Signed "Fantasque by Clarice Cliff". Price £725/$1400

LATONA CONICAL Conical Bowl in a Latona pattern. Size 7.5 inches wide. No damage or restoration. Bit of paint loss to one of the blue "pendants". Signed "Clarice Cliff" and "Bizarre". Price £765/$1485.

DIAMONDS A superb Teapot in the Athens shape and Diamonds pattern. This is the large Athens Teapot (size number 24). Excellent condition. Signed in large Script "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £1250/$2435.

PATINA Stamford shape Teapot, Milk and Sugar bowl in the Patina Coastal pattern. Each piece signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Excellent condition. Teapot 5 inches high. Price £975/$1900.

TREES & HOUSE Conical jug in the Orange Trees & House pattern. Size 6.5 inches tall. Very nicely painted. Spider crack to base. Signed "Fantasque by Clarice Cliff". Price £575/$1125.

NEWLYN Biarritz shape plate by Clarice Cliff, with a full Newlyn pattern. Size 9 by 7.5 inches. Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. Back-stamped "Biarritz". Date stamped 1935.Price £675/$1300.

GAYDAY ISIS ISIS jug in the Gayday pattern. Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. Size 9 inches tall. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £595/$1155.

BLUE CHINTZ Rare Conical Milk and Sugar Bowl with Metal Stand in the Blue Chintz pattern.

Trees and House Athens jug in Orange Trees and House pattern. Size 7 inches tall. Very nicely painted. Signed "Fantasque Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Also has impressed size # 36. Very slight nick to bottom rim has now been invisibly fixed.

GAYDAY Teapot, Milk and Sugar in the Gayday pattern and Stamford shape. Good condition, no damage or restoration. The Milk jug features the rare "upturned" spout. Slight fading of purple flowers. Each piece signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff" and also marked "Gayday" Price £1295/$2525.

BROTH CONICAL Teapot by Clarice Cliff in the Conical shape and Broth pattern. Large size Teapot. Six inches high. Size Number 24. Nicely painted. A slight nick to the spout and lid rim invisibly repaired. Signed "Fantasque by Clarice Cliff". Price £895/$1740.

GAYDAY Great shape Vase in the Gayday pattern. Shape number 400. Size 6 inches high. Signed "Clarice Cliff" on the side. Excellent condition. Wonderful paintwork. Only a slight glaze mark on the inside. Price £725/$1415.

Trees and House Athens shape jug/Pitcher in the pastel Trees and House pattern. Size 7 inches high. Signed "Fantasque By Clarice Cliff".

Orange House Biscuit Barrel in the Orange House pattern. Size 6.5 inches high. Paintwork excellent. The white mark in the picture is "flash glare", has had some minor restoration to the rim. Signed "Bizarre Fantasque by Clarice Cliff". Price £765/$1475.

MELONS A Superb Daffodil Bowl (shape 475) in the Pastel Melons pattern. Size 12.5 inches long. Paintwork is great with no fading or loss. A very fresh looking piece. Slight invisible repair to fins. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £585/$1135.

MONDRIAN Plate by Clarice Cliff in the very, very rare Mondrian pattern. Good condition. Paintwork is excellent. No restoration. Has a scratch to the banding on the outside of the rim. Size 7 inches wide. From about 1929. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £425/$825.

GAYDAY Large Meiping Vase in the Gayday pattern. Excellent condition. Size 9 inches tall. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £665/$1295.

IDYLL A superb plate by Clarice Cliff in the Idyll pattern and Biarritz shape. Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. Size 7 by 6 inches. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". From about 1934. Price £625/$1215.

WINDBELLS HONEYPOT Large size Honeypot in the Windbells pattern, Size 4 inches high. Paintwork is excellent. No restoration. Lid has a slight nick near the spoon hole. This can be professionally restored free of charge (at you choice). Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff" and "Fantasque". Price £695/$1345.

BLUE CROCUS Athens shape jug in the Blue Crocus pattern, Size 6 inches high #42. Excellent paintwork. Has had some nibbles on the base professionally repaired (now invisible). Signed " Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £495/$965.

Windbells Octagonal plate in the Windbells pattern. Size 21cm wide. Very good condition. Signed "Fantasque Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £675/$1315.

ORIGINAL BIZARRE A large Hexagonal vase by Clarice Cliff in an Original Bizarre pattern. Shape No 37. Size 11.5 inches tall. Has had a repair to a hairline (now invisible)and repainting to the purple. Signed in large Script "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". An early piece from about 1928. Price £975/$1900.

SECRETS A shape 341 Vase in the Secrets pattern. Size 6 inches high. Paintwork excellent. Has had a minor hairline on the rim repaired (now invisible). Signed "Fantasque" and "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £625/$1200.

SUNGOLD HONEYPOT Large size Honeypot in the Sungold pattern. Size 3.75 inches high. Very good condition with a slight nick on the lid that has been invisibly repaired. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £525/$1025.

BOBBINS SABOT Sabot/Clog in the Bobbins pattern. Excellent condition. Size 5.5 inches long. Signed "Fantasque Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £545/$1055.

FLOREAT Square stepped bowl in the Floreat pattern. The bowl has four steps (the bottom one is painted black). Shape 367. No chips or hairlines. Slight repainting to the green leaves on the inside. Size 9 inches wide and almost 5 inches high. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £545/$1050.

BLUE CROCUS A Bowl by Clarice Cliff in the rare Blue Crocus pattern and the Ivor shape. 5.5 inches wide. 2.5 inches high. Excellent condition. The Blue flowers are very well painted with no loss and are very vibrant. The inside has a yellow banding to the rim and the well is painted Blue. The inside is in very good condition and has not been affected by "Fruit acid" erosion like so many examples. To be hyper critical there are a few scratches to the inside and a little loss to the Blue. Signed Clarice Cliff. Item#C150. Price £565/$1100.

IDYLL A tall vase in the Applique Idyll pattern. Size 12.5 inches tall. Signed "Applique" and "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Has had a professional repair to the rim and base. Price £950/$1845.

CORAL FIRS Jug/Pitcher by Clarice Cliff in the Coral Firs pattern and Coronet shape. Size 6.5 inches high. Excellent condition. No damage, restoration or paint loss. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £575/$1115.

NUAGE DAFFODIL A Clarice Cliff Daffodil shape bowl in the Nuage pattern. Shape Number 450 variation. Good condition. Small chip to the back of the base. Size 13inches wide. From about 1932. Very rare in that the front of the bowl is lower than usual. Signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". See page 156 of The Rich Designs Of Clarice Cliff". Price £675/$1315.

GIBRALTAR A Bowl by Clarice Cliff in the Gibraltar pattern. Size 7 inches wide. Excellent condition with no damage or restoration. Only a few very minor paint flecks to the inside banding. The outside pattern is in terrific condition. Signed "Fantasque" and "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £545/$1050

DELECIA PANSIES A large Jardiniere by Clarice Cliff in the Delecia pansies pattern. Size 7 inches high by 7.5 inches wide. Excellent condition with great paintwork. Only a couple of minute losses to the blue. No damage or restoration. Not marked. The lighter at the bottom is to help show its size. Item #C154. Price £550/$1065.

VISCARIA VASE A large shape 362 Vase by Clarice Cliff in the Viscaria pattern. Very good condition with no chips or hairlines. 8 inches high. Signed "Bizarre" by " Clarice Cliff". Item #C67. Price £550/$1065.

Blue Autumn A large Sandwich plate by Clarice Cliff in the Blue Autumn pattern. Made about 1934. A rare radially painted plate in excellent condition. No chips, hairlines or restoration. Minor paint loss to the orange. The pattern includes two Cottages and four Trees. 11 inches wide. Back-stamp signed "Bizarre by Clarice Cliff" and "Fantasque". Price £535/$1035.

NEWPORT Sugar Sifter in the bonjour shape and Newport pattern. No damage or restoration. Size is 5 inches high. Signed Bizarre by Clarice Cliff and marked with an "S".

GIBRALTAR Milk jug in the Gibraltar pattern and Stamford shape. Size is 2.5 inches high. The size is for an Early Morning Set, Batchelor Set or Tea for Two. No damage or restoration. Slight loss of glaze to one side of spout. Signed Fantasque Bizarre by Clarice Cliff.

MOONFLOWER Conical Sugar Sifter in the Moonflower pattern. Size 5.5 inches tall. No damage or restoration. Signed "Fantasque Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price £875/$1700.

BLUE CROCUS Coffee Set for four in the Blue Crocus pattern and Bonjour shape. Comprising Coffee pot, Milk jug, sugar bowl and four cups and saucers. All pieces superbly painted. The only flaw is a factory grind on the underneath of the Coffee pot spout, which I am having re-glazed. All pieces signed Clarice Cliff. Price £2650/$5175. SOLD

BLUE CROCUS The same set as above, but with two cups and saucers. Price £2150/$4195. SOLD

ALTON CONICAL SIFTER Conical Sugar Sifter in the Alton pattern. Size 14cm high. Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. Signed "Fantasque Bizarre by Clarice Cliff". Price SOLD.

RED TREES & HOUSE Teapot by Clarice Cliff in the Athens shape and Red Trees & House pattern. Size 9 inches from handle to spout and 5.25 inches high. Excellent condition. Nicely painted. Signed "Fantasque by Clarice Cliff". Price £645/$1195. SOLD.

NASTURTIUM A superb Vase in the 363 shape and Nasturtium pattern. Size 6.5 inches tall. Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. There is a slight area to the bottom where it appears that the paintress has missed some of the stippling. Price £650/$1200. SOLD.

ORANGE ROOF COTTAGE Jug/Pitcher in the George shape (shape number 564) and Orange Roof Cottage pattern. Size is 6.5 inches tall. Excellent condition. No damage or restoration. Being very picky, minor paint fleck to rim at the back. Back-stamp is Fantasque Bizarre by Clarice Cliff. Also marked "George 564". Price £545/$1060.SOLD.

ART DECO FURNITURE

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ART DECO LIGHTING

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ART DECO CLOCKS

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ART DECO GLASS

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ART DECO JEWELLERY

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ART DECO BIOGRAPHIES, ESSAYS AND NOTES

ALVAR AALTO

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (February 3, 1898 - May 11, 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. He was generally known as Alvar Aalto.
He was noted for his humanistic approach and for being one of the first and the most influential architects of Scandinavian modernism, so much so that he is sometimes known as the "Father of Modernism" in Scandinavia. His work includes architecture, furniture and glassware.
He was a member of the Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. Major works include the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, Finland, and the campus of Helsinki University of Technology. Aalto's glassware includes the world-famous Aalto Vase.
He is the eponym of the Alvar Aalto Medal, now considered one of world architecture's most prestigious awards.

Biography

Alvar Aalto was born in Kuortane, Finland. He studied architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology from 1916 to 1921. He returned to Jyväskylä, where he opened his first architectural office in 1923. The following year he married architect Aino Marsio. Their honeymoon journey to Italy sealed an intellectual bond with the culture of the Mediterranean region that was to remain important to Aalto for the rest of his life.
After Aino's death Aalto married Elissa Mäkiniemi.

Works

Aalto's wide field of activity ranged from furniture and glassware designs to architecture and painting. His vase designs are world-famous. He invented a new form of laminated bent-plywood furniture in 1932. Aalto furniture is manufactured by Artek, a company Aalto co-founded. Aalto glassware (Aino as well as Alvar) is manufactured by iittala.

PERFUME BOTTLES

Perfume bottles are essential for safe storage because perfume is volatile and needs containers with very tight fitting lids or stoppers to prevent evaporation. The best ones are also made from coloured or faceted glass or other opaque material to prevent damage to perfume from sunlight.
Perfume was important to early civilisations and some of the earliest perfume bottles have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs dating back to around 1500 BC.

In Venice, glassmakers were producing small highly decorated glass bottles during the Renaissance, although few survive. By the 16th and 17th centuries manufacture had extended to England, France, Bohemia and Silesia. Production continued in Italy - for example, the famous Murano glassmakers produced bottles in coloured glass decorated with millefiori and latticino (strands of contrasting coloured glass used as a trellis work effect) while in Germany they were using white glass, decorated with gilding and enamels.

By the 18th and 19th centuries, perfume containers of great value and beauty were being made in England, using a wide variety of materials including enamel, porcelain and silver. They were often given as love tokens, usually by a man to his betrothed or wife.

Enamel perfume bottles were popular during the 18th and 19th centuries. They were made by the Battersea, Bilston and Wednesbury factories, amongst others. The enamel bottles contained glass phials, with stoppers, to hold the perfume and were decorated with delicately painted flowers, landscapes and classical scenes. Bilston was the biggest and most famous of the factories and Dovey Hawksford probably its best known artist.

Porcelain was another widely used material and many of the famous factories, like Chelsea, Derby and Wedgwood, produced perfume bottles in many shapes and styles including novelty items made to look like nuts, golf balls and shells.

As traditional Victorian style gave way to Art Nouveau and Art Deco, perfume bottles reflected the change. Art Deco bottles were geometric in form, many with elaborate stoppers so moving away from the earlier more feminine and delicate designs.

René Lalique is the best-known of the Art Deco glass designers and, of course, his perfume bottles are very collectible but other makers are also popular. The French glassmaking company Baccarat (company) produced perfume bottles for parfumiers like Jean Patou, Elizabeth Arden, Guerlain and Lenthéric. Of the other French designers of the period, Marius-Ernest Sabino is amongst the best-known. Much of his work was an imitation of the great Lalique but of inferior quality. However, some of his work stands the test of time and is collectable. The poorer work tends to be ill-proportioned and clumsy. Other notable designers of the period include Maurice Marinot, André Thuret and Gabriel Argy Rousseau. Czech glass-making factories also made perfume bottles which have become collectable.

THE BAUHAUS

Bauhaus is the common term for the Staatliches Bauhaus, an art and architecture school in Germany that operated from 1919 to 1933 and briefly in the United States from 1937-1938 and for the approach to design that it developed and taught. The most natural meaning for its name (related to the German verb for "build") is Architecture House. Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture.

The Bauhaus art school existed in four different cities (Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932, Berlin from 1932 to 1933) and Chicago from 1937-1938, under four different architect-directors (Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 to 1933 and László Moholy-Nagy from 1937-1938). These changes of venue and leadership meant a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics. When the school moved from Weimar to Dessau, for instance, although it had been an important revenue source, the pottery shop was discontinued. When Mies took over the school in 1930, he transformed it into a private school, and would not allow any supporters of Hannes Meyer to attend it.

Context

The foundation of the Bauhaus occurred at a time of crisis and turmoil in Europe as a whole and particularly in Germany. Its establishment resulted from a confluence of a diverse set of political, social, educational and artistic shifts in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Politics

The conservative modernisation of The German Empire had maintained power in the hands of the aristocracy and necessitated militarism and imperialism to maintain stability and economic growth. The rise of the left in 1912 galvanised political positions with its ideas of international solidarity and socialism set against imperialist nationalism. World War I ensued in 1914.
In 1917 in the midst of the carnage of the First World War, the Russian workers' and soldiers' Soviets seized power in Russia. Inspired by the Russian workers' and soldiers' Soviets similar German communist factions, most notably The Spartacist League, were formed who sought a similar revolution for Germany. The following year, the death throes of the war provoked the German Revolution, with the SPD securing the abdication of the Kaiser and the formation of a revolutionary government. On January 1, 1919, the Spartacist League attempted to take control of Berlin, this action was brutally suppressed by the combined forces of the SPD, the remnants of the German Army, and right-wing paramilitary groups.

Elections were held on the January 19th and the Weimar republic was established. Communist revolution was still a tangible prospect for many and a Soviet republic was declared in Munich, before it's suppression by the right wing Freikorps and regular army. Sporadic fighting continued to flare up around the country.

Art and Architecture

Art nouveau (or Jugendstil in Germany) had broken the preoccupation with revivalist historical styles that had characterised the 19th century. In the first decade of the new century however, the movement was receiving criticism; impelled partly by moral yearnings for a sterner and more unadorned style and in part by rationalist ideas requiring practical justification for formal effects. Nonetheless, the movement had opened up a language of abstraction which was to have a profound importance during the 20th century. Adolf Loos was the most effective critic, publishing Ornament and Crime in 1908 which argued that the urge to decorate surfaces was primitive. His work was feted by the later modern movement and acted as a catalyst for the abandonment of surface decoration.
Two further influences upon the emergent architectural thinking of the time can be traced from the 1903 directorships of Hans Poelzig to the the Applied Art School in Breslau and Peter Behrens to the Applied Art School in Dusseldorf.

The work of Peter Behrens for the German electrical company AEG. His work attempted to bridge the widening gap between art and mass production. He created clean-lined designs for the company's graphics, industrial design and factories which did not rely on surface decoration, but made full use of newly developed materials such as poured concrete and exposed steel. This work was much admired by the Deutscher Werkbund which had been established in 1907 to bring German manufacturers and artists together.

A number of artists began to develop their own creative languages which relied increasingly on abstraction: the fauvists (c1905) such as Georges Braque and Henri Matisse in France, Cubism developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque (c1908); der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) movement (1911) of Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Franz Marc and August Macke in Germany; and the Dutch de Stijl (1917) movement that included Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg.
" 1903 Hans Poelzig - directorship of applied art school in Beslau.
" 1903 Peter Behrens - directorship of applied art school in Dussledorf.
" 1906 Wilhelm Ernst founds the Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar (German:Grossherzogliche Sächsische Kunstgewerbeschule) under Henry van de Velde and the Grand-Ducal Saxon Academy of fine arts (German:Grossherzogliche Sächsische Hochschule für Bildende Kunst).

Expressionism

" 1914-1918 Discussions between Saxon state ministry and Fritz Mackensen head of the Grand-Ducal Saxon Academy of fine arts as to the relative importance in the teaching of fine and applied art.
" 1918 Arbeitsrat für Kunst and Bruno Taut and Expressionist architecture
" 1919 Gropius writes the pamphlet for 'Exhibition of unknown architects' -
to go into buildings, endow them with fairy tales....and build in fantasy[sic] without regard for technical difficulty.(frampton p123)
" Gropius argued for autonomy of applied arts, with a workshop-based education for both designers and craftsmen.
" Mackenson argues for artist-craftsmen to be educated in a fine art academy.
" 1919 Gropius becomes head of composite institution consisting of the Academy of Art and the School of Arts and Crafts.

Society

The Bauhaus aimed to teach the arts and crafts in tandem and to bridge the widening gulf between the art and industry.
" 1907 Deutscher Werkbund
Behrens work for AEG forged new links between art and industry. AEG work admired by the deutsche werkbund - a crucial organization for the coming to terms with the age of mechanisation. Improvement of mass housing aim of werkbund.

History of the Bauhaus
Weimar

The school was founded by Gropius at the conservative city of Weimar in 1919, as a merger of the Weimar School of Arts and Crafts (Grossherzogliche Kunstgewerbeschule) and the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts (Grossherzogliche Hochschule für Bildende Kunst). His opening manifesto proclaimed:-
to create a new guild of craftsmen, without the class distinctions which raise an arrogant barrier between craftsmen and artist.(frampton p123)

Most of the contents of the workshops had been sold off during World War I. The early intention was for the Bauhaus to be a combined architecture school, crafts school, and academy of the arts. Much internal and external conflict followed.

Gropius argued that a new period of history had begun with the end of the war. He wanted to create a new architectural style to reflect this new era. His style in architecture and consumer goods was to be functional, cheap, and consistent with mass production. To these ends, Gropius wanted to reunite art and craft to arrive at high-end functional products with artistic pretensions. The Bauhaus issued a magazine called "Bauhaus" and a series of books called "Bauhausbücher". Its head of printing and design was Herbert Bayer.

Many believe that German reform in art education was critical for economic reasons. Since the country lacked the quantity of raw materials that the United States and Great Britain had, they had to rely on the proficiency of its skilled labor force and ability to export innovative and high quality goods. Therefore designers were needed and so was a new type of art education. The school's philosophy basically stated that the artist should be trained to work with the industry.

Funding for the Bauhaus was initially provided by the Thuringian state parliament. Parliamentary support for the school eminated from the Social Democratic party. In February 1924, the Social Democrats lost control of the state parliament to the nationalists, who were hostile to the Bauhaus's leftist programme. September saw the Ministry of Education place the staff on six-month contracts and cut the school's funding in half. For Gropius, who had already been looking for alternative sources of funding, this proved to be the last straw. Together with the Council of Masters he announced the closure of the Bauhaus from the end of March 1925. The SPD, who had governed in Dessau for years, offered to establish the Bauhaus in the city. Gropius and his staff moved there in 1926.

After the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, a school of industrial design with teachers and staff less antagonistic to the conservative political regime remained in Weimar. This school was eventually known as the Technical University of Architecture and Civil Engineering and in 1996 changed its name to Bauhaus University Weimar.

Dessau

In 1927, the Bauhaus style and its most famous architects heavily influenced the exhibition "Die Wohnung" ("The Dwelling") organized by the Deutscher Werkbund in Stuttgart. A major component of that exhibition was the Weissenhof Siedlung, a settlement or housing project. Gropius was succeeded by Hannes Meyer, and then in turn by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Berlin
Paul Schultze-Naumburg

Under increasing political pressure the Bauhaus was closed on the orders of the Nazi regime on April 11 1933. The Nazi Party and other fascist political groups had opposed the Bauhaus throughout the 1920s. They considered it a front for communists, especially because many Russian artists were involved with it. Consequently, many Weissenhof architects fled to the Soviet Union, thus strengthening the effect. Nazi writers such as Wilhelm Frick and Alfred Rosenberg called the Bauhaus "un-German," and criticized its modernist styles. (See Degenerate art.)

USA

In 1937 László Moholy-Nagy was invited by the American Association of Arts and Industries to become the director of the New Bauhaus in Chicago. The new school used and developed the Bauhaus curriculum and employed some of the staff from the German schools, many of whom had left Germany due to the increasingly hostile political climate towards progressive art. The focus on natural and human sciences was intensified, and photography grew to play a more prominent role. Too experimental for American tastes the school floundered and closed in 1938 due to financial problems. Seven months later the school was reopened as the School of Design (renamed as the Institute of Design in 1944). Moholy-Nagy was succeeded as director by Serge Chermayeff in 1946.

Architectural output

The paradox of the early Bauhaus was that, although its manifesto proclaimed that the ultimate aim of all creative activity was building, the school wouldn't offer classes in architecture until 1927. The single most profitable tangible product of the Bauhaus was its wallpaper.

During the years under Gropius (1919-1927), he and his partner Adolf Meyer observed no real distinction between the output of his architectural office and the school. So the built output of Bauhaus architecture in these years is the output of Gropius: the Sommerfeld house in Berlin, the Otte house in Berlin, the Auerbach house in Jena, and the competition design for the Chicago Tribune Tower, which brought the school much attention. The definitive 1926 Bauhaus building in Dessau is also attributed to Gropius. Student work amounted mainly to unbuilt projects, interior finishes, and craft work like cabinets, chairs and pottery.

In the two years under the outspoken Swiss Communist architect Hannes Meyer, the architectural focus shifted away from aesthetics and towards functionality. But there were major commissions: one by the city of Dessau for five tightly designed "Laubenganghäuser" (apartment buildings with balcony access), which are still in use today, and another for the headquarters of the Federal School of the German Trade Unions (ADGB) in Bernau bei Berlin. Meyer's approach was to research users' needs and scientifically develop the design solution.

And then Mies van der Rohe repudiated Meyer's politics, his supporters, and his architectural approach. As opposed to Gropius' "study of essentials", and Meyer's research into user requirements, Mies advocated a "spatial implementation of intellectual decisions", which effectively meant an adoption of his own aesthetics. Neither Mies nor his Bauhaus students saw any projects built during the 1930s.
The popular conception of the Bauhaus as the source of extensive Weimar-era working housing is not accurate. Two projects, the apartment building project in Dessau and the Törten row housing also in Dessau fall in that category, but it may be fair to say that developing worker housing was not the first priority of Gropius nor Mies. It was the Bauhaus contemporaries Bruno Taut, Hans Poelzig and particularly Ernst May, as the city architects of Berlin, Dresden and Frankfurt respectively, who are rightfully credited with the thousands of socially progressive housing units built in Weimar Germany. In Taut's case, the housing may still be seen in SW Berlin, is still occupied, and can be reached by going easily from the Metro Stop Onkel Tom's Hutte.

Impact

The Bauhaus had a major impact on art and architecture trends in Western Europe, the United States and Israel in the decades following its demise, as many of the artists involved fled or were exiled by the Nazi regime.

Gropius, Breuer, and Moholy-Nagy re-assembled in England during the mid 1930s to live and work in the Isokon project before the war caught up to them. In the late 1930s Mies van der Rohe re-settled in Chicago and became one of the pre-eminent architects in the world. Moholy-Nagy also went to Chicago and founded the New Bauhaus school under the sponsorship of industrialist and philanthropist Walter Paepcke. Herbert Bayer, also sponsored by Paepcke, moved to Aspen, Colorado in support of Paepcke's Aspen projects.

Both Gropius and Breuer went to teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and worked together before their professional split in 1941. The Harvard School was enormously influential in the late 1940s and early 1950s, producing such students as Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, Lawrence Halprin and Paul Rudolph, among many others.

One of the main objectives of the Bauhaus was to unify art, craft, and technology. The machine was considered a positive element, and therefore industrial and product design were important components. Vorkurs ("initial course") was taught; this is the modern day Basic Design course that has become one of the key foundational courses offered in architectural schools across the globe. There was no teaching of history in the school because everything was supposed to be designed and created according to first principles rather than by following precedent.

One of the most important contributions of the Bauhaus is in the field of furniture design. The world famous and ubiquitous Cantilever chair by Dutch designer Mart Stam, using the tensile properties of steel, and the Wassily Chair designed by Marcel Breuer are two examples.

The physical plant at Dessau survived the War and was operated as a design school with some architectural facilities by the Communist German Democratic Republic. This included live stage productions in the Bauhaus theater under the name of Bauhausbühne ("Bauhaus Stage"). After German reunification, a reorganized school continued in the same building, with no essential continuity with the Bauhaus under Gropius in the early 1920s

In 1999 Bauhaus-Dessau College started to organize postgraduate programs with participants from all over the world. This effort has been supported by the Bauhaus-Dessau Foundation which was founded in 1994 as a public institution.

American art schools have also rediscovered the Bauhaus school. The Master Craftsman Program at Florida State University bases its artistic philosophy on Bauhaus theory and practice.

BOUCHERON

Boucheron is a French jeweller. Since its founding by Frederic Boucheron in 1858, the House has created exceptional pieces in the High Jewellery, watch and jewellery ranges. Throughout the history of the House of Boucheron, Frederic Boucheron was often a pioneer: he was the first jeweller to open on the Place Vendôme in 1893, he did successful experiments with diamond graving, and was the precursor of the "nature" style by using snakes and other symbolic animal figures of 19th century Art Nouveau.
Boucheron today is one the most renown French enterprises in the jewellery world and is celebrated for its creativity, its know-how and audacity. Aside jewellery, Boucheron is also known for its perfume distribution : in 1988 the brand captured the spirit of its craft and transformed it into a fragrance by creating the first "parfum bijou".

In 2005, a new horizon was opened to Boucheron; the creation of a "bijoux" line came to reinforce the commercial expansion of the brand. The House celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2008.

MARCEL BREUER

Marcel Lajos Breuer (May 21, 1902 Pécs, Hungary - July 1, 1981 New York City), architect and furniture designer, was an influential modernist. One of the fathers of Modernism, Breuer showed a great interest in modular construction and simple forms.

Known as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at the Bauhaus in the 1920s, stressing the combination of art and technology, and eventually became the head of the carpentry shop there. He later practiced in Berlin, designing houses and commercial spaces, as well as a number of tubular metal furniture pieces, replicas of which are still in production today.

Breuer may be best known for his design of the Wassily Chair, the first tubular bent-steel chair, designed in 1925 for Wassily Kandinsky and inspired in part by bicycle handlebars. Still in production, the chair can be assembled and disassembled most easily with bicycle tools.

In the 1930's, due to the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, Breuer relocated to London. While in London, Breuer was employed by Jack Pritchard at the Isokon company; one of the earliest introducers of modern design to the United Kingdom. Breuer designed his Long Chair as well as experimenting with bent and formed plywood. Breuer eventually ended up in the United States. He taught at Harvard's architecture school, working with students such as Philip Johnson and Paul Rudolph who later became well-known U.S. architects. (At one point Johnson called Breuer "a peasant Mannerist".) At the same time, Breuer worked with old friend and Bauhaus colleague Walter Gropius, also at Harvard, on the design of several houses in the Boston area.

Breuer dissolved his partnership with Gropius in May 1941 and established his own firm in New York. The Geller House I of 1945 is the first to employ Breuer's concept of the 'binuclear' house, with separate wings for the bedrooms and for the living / dining / kitchen area, separated by an entry hall, and with the distinctive 'butterfly' roof (two opposing roof surfaces sloping towards the middle, centrally drained) that became part of the popular modernist style vocabulary. A demonstration house set up in the MOMA garden in 1949 caused a new flurry of interest in the architect's work, and an appreciation written by Peter Blake.

The 1953 commission for UNESCO headquarters in Paris was a turning point for Breuer: a return to Europe, a return to larger projects after years of only residential commissions, and the beginning of Breuer's adoption of concrete as his primary medium. He became known as one of the leading practitioners of Brutalism, with an increasingly curvy, sculptural, personal idiom. Windows were often set in soft, pillowy depressions rather than sharp, angular recesses. Many architects remarked at his ability to make concrete appear "soft".

Breuer is sometimes incorrectly credited, or blamed, for the former Pan Am Building (now the MetLife Building), a high-rise in New York City considered to be unpopular. The Pan Am was actually credited to Walter Gropius. In 1969 Breuer developed a 30-story proposed skyscraper over Grand Central Terminal, called "Grand Central Tower", which Ada Louise Huxtable called 'a gargantuan tower of aggressive vulgarity', and became a cause celebre. Breuer's reputation was damaged, but the legal fallout improved the climate for landmark building preservation in New York City and across the United States.

ETTORE BUGATTI

Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti (September 15, 1881, Milan, Italy, died on August 21, 1947) and was an automobile designer and manufacturer.

He came from a notably artistic family that had its roots in Milan. He was the elder son of Teresa Lorioli and her husband Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940), an important Art Nouveau furniture and jewelry designer. His younger brother was a renowned animal sculptor, Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916), his aunt, Luigia Bugatti, was the wife of the painter Giovanni Segantini, and his paternal grandfather, Giovanni Luigi Bugatti, was an architect and sculptor.

Before founding his own automobile company, Ettore designed a number of engines and vehicles for others. Prinetti & Stucchi produced his 1898 Type 1. From 1902 through 1904, Dietrich built his Type 3/4 and Type 5/6/7 under the Dietrich-Bugatti marque. In 1907, Bugatti went to work for the Deutz Gasmotoren Fabrik, designing the Type 8/9.

On his own time, Bugatti developed the Type 2 (in 1900 and 1901), and the 1903 Type 5. While at Deutz, Bugatti built his Type 10 in the basement of his home. In 1913, Bugatti designed a small car for Peugeot, the Type 19 "Bébé".

Although born in Italy, Bugatti's eponymous automobile company was set up in Molsheim, in the Alsace region, now part of France. Ettore Bugatti was the technical innovator behind the company, developing a number of engines and chassis for the numerous models produced over the next three decades. The company was known for its advanced engineering in its premium road cars and its success in early Grand Prix motor racing, winning the first ever Monaco Grand Prix.

Ettore Bugatti also designed a successful motorized railcar, the Autorail, and an airplane, but it never flew. His son, Jean Bugatti, was killed on August 11, 1939 at the age of 30, while testing a Type 57 tank-bodied race car near the Molsheim factory. After that, the company's fortune began to decline. World War II ruined the factory in Molsheim, and the company lost control of the property. During the war, Bugatti planned a new factory at Levallois in Paris and designed a series of new cars.

Ettore Bugatti was interred in the Bugatti family plot at the municipal cemetery in Dorlisheim near Molsheim in the Bas-Rhin département of the Alsace region of France.

CARTIER

Cartier was founded in Paris in 1847 by Louis-François Cartier. In 1874 his son, Alfred Cartier took over the administration of the company, but it was his sons, Louis, Pierre and Jacques, who were responsible for establishing the famous world-wide brand name of Cartier.

Louis retained responsibility for the Paris branch, moving to the Rue de la Paix, in 1899. He was responsible for some of the company's most celebrated design innovations, like the legendary mystery clocks, high fashion wristwatches and exotic orientalist Art Deco designs, including the daringly colourful "Tutti Frutti" jewels. Jacques took charge of the London operation and eventually moved to the current location at New Bond Street.

Pierre Cartier established the New York Branch in 1909, moving in 1917 to the current location of 653 Fifth Avenue, the Neo-Renaissance mansion of banker Morton Plant. Among the Cartier team was Charles Jacqueau, who joined Louis Cartier in 1909 for his entire life, and Jeanne Toussaint, who was Director of Fine Jewelry from 1933 on. After the death of Pierre in 1964, Jean-Jacques Cartier (Jacques's son), Claude Cartier (Louis's son), and Marionne Claudelle (Pierre's daughter), who respectively headed the Cartier affiliates in London, New York and Paris - sold the businesses.
In 1972 a group of investors led by Joseph Kanoui bought Cartier Paris, whose President became Robert Hocq, the creator of the concept of "Les Must de Cartier" in collaboration with Alain Dominique Perrin, General Director of "Les Must de Cartier." In 1974 and 1976 respectively, Cartier London and Cartier New York were bought back. In 1979 the Cartier interests were combined together, creating "Cartier Monde" uniting and controlling Cartier Paris, London and New York.

ADOLPHE MOURON CASSANDRE

Adolphe Mouron Cassandre (January 24, 1901 - June 19, 1968) was an influential Ukrainian-French painter, commercial poster artist, and typeface designer.

Born Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron in Kharkov, Ukraine to French parents, as a young man, Cassandre moved to Paris, France where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Académie Julian. Needing to earn a living, the popularity of posters as advertising afforded him an opportunity to work for a Parisian printing house. Inspired by cubism as well as surrealism, he earned a reputation with works such as Bûcheron (Woodcutter), a poster created for a cabinetmaker that won first prize at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs.

Cassandre became successful enough that with the help of partners he was able to set up his own advertising agency called Alliance Graphique. Serving a wide variety of clientele, during the 1930s, his creations for the Dubonnet wine company were among the first posters designed in a manner that allowed them to be seen by occupants in fast-moving vehicles. His posters are memorable for their innovative graphic solutions and their frequent denotations to such painters as Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso. In addition, he taught graphic design at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and then at the Ecole d'Art Graphique.

With typography an important part of poster design, the company created several new typeface styles. Cassandre developed Bifur in 1929, the sans serif Acier Noir in 1935, and in 1937 an all-purpose font called Peignot. In 1936, his works were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City which led to commissions from Harper's Bazaar to do cover designs.

With the onset of World War II, Cassandre served in the French army until the fall of France. His business long gone, he survived by creating stage sets and costumes for the theatre, something he had dabbled in during the 1930s. After the war, he continued this line of work while also returning to easel painting. In 1963, he designed the well-known Yves Saint-Laurent logo.

In his later years, Adolphe Mouron Cassandre suffered from bouts of depression that led to his suicide in Paris in 1968.

In 1985, Henri Mouron told his father's life story in the a book titled A.M. Cassandre.

COCO CHANEL

Chanel herself mentioned constantly improved versions of her childhood. However, it seems certain that she was born as the second illegitimate daughter to the traveling salesman Albert Chanel and his lover Jeanne Devolle in the small city of Saumur, France. Her parents married in 1884. She had five siblings: two sisters, Julia (born 1882) and Antoinette (born 1887) and three brothers, Alphonse (born 1885), Lucien (born 1889) and Augustin (born 1891), who died after a few months. On 16 February 1895, when Gabrielle was 11 years old, her mother died; her father abandoned them a short time later. The young Gabrielle spent 7 years in the orphanage of the Catholic monestary of Aubazine, where she learned the trade of a seamstress. After affairs with generous wealthy men - a military officer and later an English industrialist - she was able to open a shop in Paris in 1910 selling ladies' hats, and within a year moved the business to the fashionable Rue Cambon. Her influence on haute couture was such that she was the only person in the field to be named on TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

In 1921 Chanel No. 5 perfume was introduced by Chanel. The perfume was the first to be sold worldwide, and stood out from the other flamboyant perfume bottles of the time. The No. 5 in Chanel No. 5, is said to be Coco's lucky number. Pierre Wertheimer became her partner in the perfume business in 1924. Wertheimer owned 70% of the company; Coco Chanel received 10% and her friend Bader 20%. The Wertheimers continue to control the perfume company today.

The influential Chanel suit, launched in 1923, was an elegant suit comprising a knee-length skirt and trim, boxy jacket, traditionally made of woven wool with black trim and gold buttons and worn with large costume-pearl necklaces. Coco Chanel also popularized the little black dress, whose blank-slate versatility allowed it to be worn for day and evening, depending on how it was accessorized. Although unassuming black dresses existed before Chanel, the ones she designed were considered the haute couture standard. In 1923, she told Harper's Bazaar that "simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance."
The nickname Coco was evidently acquired at La Rotonde, a cafe frequented by members of a French cavalry regiment and many of the artists who flocked to Paris' Montparnasse section at the turn of the 20th century. It was there that Chanel, then a cabaret singer, performed a song called "Qui qu'a vu Coco," and the name stuck. (Other sources state that her audiences cried "Coco" when they wanted an encore, while further sources state that the song was called "Ko Ko Ri Ko," French for "Cock-a-doodle-do.")

Chanel was set up in business by a paramour, Étienne Balsan, a French textile heir, and her romantic affairs with the artist Paul Iribe, the Duke of Westminster, Grand Duke Dmitri of Russia, and British sportsman Boy Capel all had a considerable influence on the stylistic evolution of her often male-inspired fashions. Coco Chanel was very well known for minimal accesories, but was often photographed wearing a white Camellia.

She never married. For more than 30 years, Gabrielle Chanel made the Hôtel Ritz in Paris her home, even during the Nazi occupation of Paris, during which time she was criticized for anti-semitism and homophobia, and for having an intimate affair with Hans Gunther von Dincklage, Nazi officer who arranged for her to stay in her favorite hotel, the Hôtel Ritz Paris. He later turned out to be an intelligence agent. She maintained an apartment above her Rue Cambon establishment and also owned Villa La Pausa in the town of Roquebrune on the French Riviera. However, she spent her latter years in Lausanne, Switzerland and is buried there in a tomb surrounded by five stone lions.
Chanel has been portrayed on the Broadway stage by Katharine Hepburn in a musical by Andre Previn and Alan Jay Lerner, and on screen by the French actress Marie-France Pisier.
The House of Chanel in Paris, under Karl Lagerfeld, remains one of the top design houses today.

PIERRE CHAREAU

The Maison de Verre (French for House of Glass) was built from 1928 to 1931 in Paris, France. Constructed in the early modern style of architecture, the house's design emphasized three primary traits: honesty of materials, variable transparency of forms, and juxtaposition of "industrial" materials and fixtures with a more traditional style of home décor. The primary materials used were steel, glass, and glass block. Some of the notable "industrial" elements included rubberized floor tiles, bare steel beams,perforated metal sheet,heavy industrial light fixtures and mechanical fixtures.
The design was a collaboration between Pierre Chareau (a furniture and interiors designer), Bernard Bijvoet (a Dutch architect working in Paris since 1927) and Louis Dalbet (craftsman metalworker). Much of the intricate moving scenery of the house was designed on site as the project developed. The external form is defined by translucent glass block walls, with select areas of clear glazing for tranparency. Internally, spatial division is variable by the use of sliding, folding or rotating screens in glass, sheet or perforated metal, or in combination. Other mechanical components included an overhead trolley from the kitchen to dining room, a retracting stair from the private sitting room to Mme Dalsace's bedroom and complex bathroom cupboards and fittings.

The program of the home was somewhat unusual in that it included a ground-floor medical suite for Dr. Dalsace. This variable circulation pattern was provided for by a rotating screen which hid the private stairs from patients during the day, but framed the stairs at night.
The house is notable for its splendid architecture, but it may be more well-known for another reason. It was built on the site of a much older building which the patron had purchased and intended to demolish. Much to his or her chagrin, however, the elderly tenant on the top floor of the building absolutely refused to sell, and so the patron was obliged to completely demolish the bottom three floors of the building and construct the Maison de Verre underneath, all without disturbing the original top floor!

SERGE CHERMAYEFF

Serge Ivan Chermayeff (October 8, 1900 - May 8, 1996) was a British architect, writer, and co-founder of several architectural societies, including the American Society of Planners and Architects.

He was born in Grozny, Russian Empire (currently Chechen Republic), but moved to England at a young age where he received his education. He first started working as an interior designer for a firm in London. By 1930, he and the German architect Erich Mendelsohn briefly partnered to form their own architectural firm. They created some very important works in the British modernist movement, notably the De La Warr Pavilion and was a member of the MARS Group. In 1940, Chermayeff emigrated to the United States where he would continue his architectural career and would take up teaching at several universities. In 1946, he was recommended by Walter Gropius to become the president of the Institute of Design in Chicago. He stepped down in 1951 when the institute merged with the Illinois Institute of Technology. Between 1952 and 1970 he would continue to teach at several universities including Harvard, Yale, and MIT. He retired in 1970. He wrote several books, including Community and Privacy with Christopher Alexander in 1964 and The Shape of Community with Alexander Tzonis in 1971. He died in 1996 in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

DEMETRE H. CHIPARUS

Demetre H. Chiparus (1886-1947) was an Art Deco era sculptor who lived and worked in Paris. He was born in Romania and attended school in Italy. Before World War I, he traveled to Paris to attend the Ecole des Beaux Arts and pursue his art. In 1914 he exhibited at the Salon. He employed the combination of bronze and ivory, called chryselephantine, to great effect. Most of his renowned works were made between 1914 and 1933. In the 1920's, his work was influenced by an interest in Egypt, after Pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb was excavated. Dancers of the Russian Ballet, French theatre, and early motion pictures were among his more notable subjects and were typified by a long, slender, stylized appearance. He worked primarily with the Etling Foundry in Paris.

CLARICE CLIFF

Clarice Cliff (January 20, 1899 - October 23, 1972), was a ceramic artist active from 1922 to 1940.
Clarice was born in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, England. She studied at the Burslem School of Art in the evenings.

Her first job was as a gilder, and once she had mastered this she changed jobs to learn freehand painting at another potbank, then moved to A.J. Wilkinson's in 1916, to improve her chances of becoming a modeller.

This was an unusual start to an unusual career, most 'pottery girls' mastered a particular task and then stayed with that to maximise their income as they were paid by the piece. However, Clarice was ambitious and prepared to take wage reductions to start at the bottom to acquire a new skill, in the process acquiring a wide range of expertise including outlining, tube lining, enamelling, banding and modelling.
Eventually Clarice's wide range of abilities were recognised, and she was given an opportunity to decorate some of the factory's defective 'glost' (white) ware in her own freehand patterns. She covered the imperfections in simple patterns of triangles, vividly coloured in a style that was to become known as 'Original Bizarre'. To the surprise of the company's salesmen, this was immediately popular. She was provided with her own studio and another painter to assist, but this rapidly expanded to a team of around 70 young painters, mainly women but four boys - they hand painted the wares under her direction.

Between 1928 and 1936 she evolved a new range called Fantasque which featured cottages and trees, and then many Art Deco inspired paterns. These have proven particularly collectible nowadays. Through the depths of the Depression her wares continued to sell in volume at what were high prices for the time. Her Bizarre and Fantasque ware was sold throughout the world, North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, but not in mainland Europe. In Britain many top London stores sold it, including Harrod's, but never Woolworths as some have stated.

In 1930 she was appointed Art Director on Newport Pottery and A. J. Wilkinson's, the two adjoining factories that produced her wares. Her work involved spending more time with the factory owner Colley Shorter, and this gradually developed into an affair, conducted in secrecy. In 1940, after the death of Ann Shorter, Colley's wife, they married and Clarice moved into the Shorter home, Chetwynd House, where she developed a strong interest in the extensive gardens.

During World War Two only plain white pottery was permitted under wartime regulations, so Clarice assisted with management of the pottery but was not able to continue design work.
After the war, most production went to the US market where the taste was for formal ware in traditional English designs, rather than the striking patterns and shapes that had established Clarice's reputation. Thus she was never able to return to creative work. A.J.Wilkinson and their Newport Pottery continued to sell ware under Clarice's name until 1964 when the factory was sold to Midwinter who also continued to use the 'Clarice Cliff' brand on some pieces.

Clarice's earliest Bizarre pieces pieces from 1927 are the traditional shapes decorated in strongly geometric patterns of diamonds and triangles in bold contrasting colours, and now called 'Original Bizarre'. This early ware is usually stamped 'Bizarre' and sells for moderately high prices at auction.
By 1929 Clarice was designing her own shapes, often very angular and high Art Deco.
Abstract and cubist patterns appeared on these, such as Ravel, seen on Clarice's Conical shape ware.
Clarice's are highly stylised and interpreted in strong colours, such as the 'Honolulu' pattern.
Typically stamped 'Bizarre' or 'Fantasque', rare combinations of shape and pattern can attract very high prices at auction. By 1935 tastes had changed and the 'My Garden' series

Other series from this period include 'Harvest' which has detailed modeling,
This late 1930s ware attracts relatively low prices at auction, though becoming more valuable.
After the second world war, although Clarice had less creative input into the ware her 'Clarice Cliff' mark was frequently added to the standard ranges made by the factory. This postwar ware has little value at auction.

In 1972 the first Clarice Cliff exhibition took place at Brighton, East Sussex, for which she provided comments for the catalogue. Later that year Clarice died suddenly at Chetwynd House. This exhibition marked the start of a major revival of interest in Clarice's work, which has continued to be sought after by Art Deco Ceramic collectors. Such was the interest that the Clarice Cliff Collectors Club was founded in 1982 [1] which celebates it's 25th Anniversary in 2006.

A chain of mergers eventually led to Wedgwood owning the Clarice Cliff name, and in the early 1990s they produced a range of reproductions of the highly sought 1930s Deco pieces. These were made to a high quality, and were produced in small numbers for sale to collectors who could not find (or perhaps could not afford) the most striking original pieces.

These hand painted collectors pieces ceased production in 2002 and are now acquiring significant values at auction. Other pieces were made in larger quantities with printed (not hand painted) patterns, and these are also starting to be sought at auction. These reproductions should not be confused with forgeries (of which a number are found), the Wedgwood ones are clearly marked as 'Wedgwood Clarice Cliff' and were produced by the current holder of the copyright.

1999 saw the centenary celebrations of Clarice's life and work. This featured the 'Bizarre Art of Clarice Cliff' exhibition at the Wedgwood Visitors Centre, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent. This was linked to the centenary book 'Art of Bizarre' by Leonard Griffin (Chrysalis boooks). A biography by Lynn Knight was published in 2005.

WELLS COATES

Wells Wintemute Coates (December 17, 1895 - June 17, 1958) was an architect, designer and writer. He was, for most of his life, an ex-patriate Canadian architect who is best known for his work in England. His most notable work is the Isokon building in Hampstead, London.

Early years

The oldest of six children, Wells Coates was born in Tokyo, Japan on December 17, 1895 to Methodist missionaries Sarah Agnes Wintemute Coates (1864-1945) and Harper Havelock Coates (1865-1934).
The young man's desire to be an architect was inspired by his mother, who had herself studied architecture under Louis Sullivan and planned one of the first missionary schools in Japan.
Coates spent his youth in the Far East, and voyaged around the world with his father in 1913. He served in World War I, first as a gunner and later as a pilot with the Royal Air Force. From 1921 to 1924, he attended the University of British Columbia where he obtained BA and BSc degrees, and in 1924, he moved to London where he studied engineering (obtaining a PhD). Among his first jobs in England was as a journalist and then with the design firm of Adams and Thompson in 1924. He established his own firm in 1928.

His childhood experiences in Japan would play an important role in his aesthetic sensibility that he brought to his architectural work, and this sensibility found a fitting outlet in the Modernist Movement, then current in Europe. He attended the 1933 Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), which produced the famous Athens Charter, and was one of the founders, with Maxwell Fry, of the Modern Architectural Research Group (MARS), the British wing of CIAM.

Role as a Modernist

Wells embraced Le Corbusier's architectural mantra that buildings should be 'machines for living' (machine à habiter). The machine á habiter ideal was best-reflected in his Isokon building (also known as Lawn Road Flats), completed in 1934. Indeed, the architectural critic J. M. Richards suggested that he improved on Corbusier, coming "nearer to the machine á habiter than anything Corbusier ever designed". The building was compared to the exterior of an ocean liner by the novelist Agatha Christie, who lived there for a time, so clean and striking was the design.
The apartment building was the brainchild of Jack and Molly Pritchard, who in 1931 established a design firm featuring Modernist architecture and furniture. With simple living spaces strongly influenced by Coates' Japanese experience, and including built-in Isokon furniture, Isokon was "an experiment in collective housing designed for left-wing intellectuals". It became a haven for Germans escaping Nazi persecution and hosted many famous personages including Christie, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.
Isokon was ahead of its time: it won second place in Horizon Magazine's 'Ugliest Building Competition' in 1946, and would not be recognized as one of England's most important Modernist buildings for another decade. The building fell into disrepair by the 1990's but it changed ownership in 2001 and was fully restored by 2004.

Later Achievements

He also designed the "D-handle", a simple door handle design commonly employed, for example, in Scandinavian furniture. In 1930 he designed a studio for the British Broadcasting Corporation, and among his technical designs was a microphone stand featuring an overhead counterbalanced arm that enabled the microphone to be moved to any part of the studio while remaining perfectly balanced. The design became a standard piece of equipment at the BBC.

The thirties were his most prolific era. The Isokon was immediately followed by Embassy Court, Brighton (1935) and 10 Palace Gate, Kensington (1939). These were the only apartment buildings he would design. He also had several private home commissions. During World War II, he again served with the RAF, this time working on fighter aircraft development, for which he was later awarded an OBE.
Following World War II, he, like some other well known architects including Gropius and Breuer (by then working in America), contributed to the British post-War housing effort by introducing an early scheme for modular housing he called Room Unit Production.

He also designed a remarkable boat, called the Wingsail. It had a rigid sail design mounted on a catamaran hull. Though he formed a company to market the design, it was not a success, as both the sail and the catamaran were ahead of their time.

He is less well known for his planning work. In 1937, he undertook planning for a slum clearance in Britain (not implemented). In Canada (1952-54) he prepared plans for Iroquois New Town on the St. Lawrence River in eastern Ontario which were also not implemented (the design was awarded to others). He also prepared plans for a Toronto Island Redevelopment Project , and was a participant in the Project 58 urban redevelopment scheme for Vancouver.

Final Years in Canada

Coates began coming back to Canada in the early 1950's, about the time of the Iroquois project, finally settling there in 1957. In 1955 and '56, he taught at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard with Walter Gropius but he was not happy there. He returned to Vancouver after two years, where he worked on Project 58. His last assignment was to design a monorail rapid transit system for Vancouver, dubbed the Monospan Twin-Ride System (MTRS). Once again, he was ahead of his time. The project was abandoned, but would be rejuvenated years later in another form known as SkyTrain.
Wells Coates died of a heart attack in Vancouver on June 17, 1958 at the age of 63.
The University of East Anglia Library in Norwich has materials relating to his life and work. A list of the holdings is available on the WWW [12]. Additional reference materials from the CIAM period are held at the CIAM Belgian Section of the Getty Research Institute.

LE CORBUSIER

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, widely known as Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887- August 27, 1965), was a Swiss (naturalized French) architect, famous for his contributions to what is now called modernism, or the International Style. He was a pioneer in theoretical studies of modern design and was dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities. His career spanned five decades, with iconic buildings constructed across central Europe, India, Russia, and one structure in the United States. He was also an urban planner, painter, sculptor, writer and furniture designer.

Early life and education, 1887-1913

Born as Charles-Edouard Jeanneret in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a small town of Neuchâtel canton in north-western Switzerland, just across the border from France, Le Corbusier was attracted to the visual arts and studied under the tutelage of the teacher at the local arts school, Charles L'Éplattenier, who had himself studied in Budapest and Paris. He designed his earliest houses, like the Villa Fallet, the Villa Schwob, and the Villa Jeanneret (the latter of which was for his parents) in La Chaux-de-Fonds. These houses recall the indigenous mountainous vernacular architectural styles popular in the Alps.
Frequently, in his early years he would escape the somewhat provincial atmosphere of his hometown by traveling around Europe. In about 1907 he travelled to Paris, where he found work in the office of Auguste Perret, the French pioneer in reinforced concrete. Between October 1910 and March 1911 he worked for the renowned architect Peter Behrens near Berlin, where he met a young Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and became fluent in German. Both of these experiences proved influential in his later career. Later in 1911 he would journey to the Balkans and visit Greece and Turkey, filling sketchbooks with renderings of what he saw, including many famous sketches of the Parthenon, whose forms he would later praise in his work Vers une architecture (1923).

Early career: the villas, 1914-1930

Jeanneret moved to Paris permanently at the age of 29 in 1916, shortly after he had begun to work on theoretical architectural studies using modern techniques. Among these was his project for the "Dom-ino" House (1914-1915). This model proposed an open floor plan consisting of concrete slabs supported by a minimal number of thin reinforced concrete piers around the edges, with a stairway providing access to each level on one side of the floor plan. The design soon became the foundation for most of his architecture for the next ten years. Soon he would begin his own architectural pr