Clarice Cliff (née Machin) took in washing to supplement the family income, and they had seven children. Cliff was sent to a different school from her siblings, and this perhaps prompted her more independent approach to her career, and her non-standard life style by Stoke-on-Trent standards. After school Cliff would visit an aunt who was a hand painters at a local pottery company, and she also made models from papier-mâché at school. At the age of 13, Cliff started working in the pottery industry. Her first work was as a gilder, adding gold lines on ware of traditional design. Once she had
Clarice Cliff floral embossed "Davenport" ware of 1925. But in 1929 at the same time as she started the colourful cubist and landscape designs, Cliff's modelling took on a new style. This was influenced by European originals by Désny, Tétard Freres, Josef Hoffmann and others, that she had seen in design journals including 'Mobilier e Décoration'. Between 1929 and 1935 Cliff issued a mass of shape ranges, including "Conical, Bon Jour/Biarritz, Stamford, Eton, Daffodil", and "Trieste". In each of these there were tea and coffee ware shapes, but the first two were so popular that biscuit barrels, sugar sifters, bowls and vases