My schoolpal Clarice
Mrs. Lilian Taylor of Stoke-on-Trent celebrated
her hundredth birthday in April 1999, and was delighted when she received
a congratulatory telegram from Her Majesty the Queen. However, when a reporter
from the Stoke-on-Trent Sentinel visited her to cover the story, the headline
in the paper was not about the telegram, but about Clarice Cliff ‘Lilian,
100, recalls her artistic schoolpal’ The reporter found that Lilian had
been born just a few months after Clarice and had first met her when they
were both three. They lived near each other in Tunstall and Lilian recalled
that when they went to school, they became close friends.
‘She would pick up a pencil and do anything with
it, right from the start. She did not have any knowledge of painting she
just did it.’
They both left school in 1912 to work as gilders,
and interestingly, Lilian stated that she and Clarice were at Grindley’s,
a pottery we had not previously known Clarice worked for so further research
is needed. Several nights a week after work Clarice and Lilian attended
the Tunstall School of Art together. She recalls that at this stage Clarice
was already a natural artist, designing straight on to the ware:
‘I never saw her designing anything on paper, she
had a real gift.’
Lilian still has one plate which she decorated
as she worked alongside Clarice at the Tunstall School of Art in 1914.
She outlined the plate in charcoal and then hand-painted the design on-glaze
with enamels. To get it fired she wrapped it carefully, and took it back
to the factory where her decorating manager fired it for her.
Lilian eventually lost touch with Clarice after
she started to work at Wilkinson’s. Lilian continued to work as a hand-paintress
at Johnson’s in Tunstall. She gained a reputation of her own as a skilled
hand-paintress, to the extent that her boss sent her ‘out on loan to different
factories’ where she painted ‘specials’ until she left work in 1924. Ironically,
as Lilian stopped work Clarice started to establish herself at Wilkinson’s
with the handmade figurines, that were the beginning of her notable career
and the ‘birth of Bizarre.’
Lilian recalls that her former schoolpal, who went
on to become the most famous female design in Staffordshire was just a
‘lovely girl’ and ‘very unassuming’. As part of the Christie's valuation
day at the Wedgwood exhibition on August 8th 1999 Lilian’s daughter brought
along her mother, and Lilian brought along her plate! This historic piece,
decorated as she sat next to Clarice in 1914, is far removed from the well-known
bright and bold designs Clarice was later to do, and Lilian says that when
she first saw Bizarre ware she did not really like it, as she ‘preferred
more precise pieces. ’If only we could see what Clarice was painting as
she sat next to Lilian in 1914~ that would be a story!
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Lilian aged 18 in 1917
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Lilian aged 100 with the plate
she painted
in 1914
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