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 sifters, again hand painted, with the exception of the aforementioned Crocus which was lithographed. Whilst the purists still scoff at these pieces some 30 years later they are actually a very accurate representation of the originals they were copied from and in themselves are now becoming sought after not least because they allow collectors to acquire excellent pieces and a more affordable price. A chain of mergers finally led to Wedgwood owning the Clarice Cliff name, and from 1992 to 2002 they too produced a range of reproductions of the highly sought 1930s pieces. These were made to a high