Clarice Cliff to decorate some of the old defective 'glost' (white) ware in her own freehand patterns. For these she used on-glaze enamel colours, which enabled a brighter palette than underglaze colours. She covered the imperfections in simple patterns of triangles, in a style that she called 'Bizarre'. The earliest examples had just a hand-painted mark, usually in a rust coloured paint, 'Bizarre by Clarice Cliff', sometimes with 'Newport Pottery' underneath. To the surprise of the company's senior salesman Ewart Oakes, when he took a car load to a major stockist, it was immediately popular. Clarice was joined by young painter Gladys
Clarice Cliff two. The "Appliqué Lugano" pattern is shown left on a wall plaque, with (inset) the printed "Bizarre" mark, and a "hand painted" range name as often seen on this ware. "Appliqué", with its more intense colouring, proved long term to be one of the most sought after Cliff ranges. The "Fantasque" range evolved between 1928 and 1934 and mainly featured abstracts or landscapes of cottages and trees, and some Art Deco inspired patterns. The first "Fantasque" landscape pattern was "Trees and House" and this sold well from 1930 until at least 1934. However, it was the slightly later, more sophisticated