What's in a name? DON RODGERS Bargain Hunter.

Byline: DON RODGERS

IF you go round an antiques fair or attend an auction viewing this Easter, you'll see a lot of people turning pottery and porcelain objects over, looking for a mark on the base. What they're hoping to find are famous collectable names; for items by good manufacturers in good condition are the key to high value, we're often told.

Well, in terms of 20th century ceramics, you can't do much better than the three names represented here: Moorcroft, Clarice Cliff and Susie Cooper.

William Moorcroft began his pottery career as a designer for the Staffordshire firm of James Macintyre & Co in 1897. Financed by Liberty's, Moorcroft built his own factory near Cobridge just before the First World War and the enterprise went from strength to strength.

Moorcroft wares are famous for their naturalistic tube-lined decoration set against rich background colours and his early designs now command serious four-figure sums.

Clarice Cliff's most celebrated work features the bold geometric shapes and brash colours of Art Deco, especially in her Bizarre and Fantasque ranges.

She started her working life in 1912 as an apprentice enameller. By 1931 she was art director for the firm of AJ Wilkinson, at the head of a team of paintresses known as the Bizarre Girls.

Susie Cooper is also best known for the ceramics she produced in the Art Deco period but often featuring much softer colours.

She worked for the firm of AE Gray in the 1920s, setting up her own decorating studio in 1929. So given the illustrious names featured on the three items shown here, does that mean I'm sitting on a fortune? Unfortunately, it doesn't. The fact is that collectors aren't just looking for the names, they also want the designs and styles that made those names famous.

The Moorcroft jug and small Cooper dish are in the rather plain colours. The vegetable dish is a later Royal Staffordshire piece, produced when Cliff's name was being used more as a trade mark than a guarantee of design. I paid just under pounds 10 for them all which, despite the names, are of only modest worth at around pounds 30.

CAPTION(S):

[bar] Marks: Clarice Cliff, Moorcroft, and Susie Cooper [bar] Moorcroft jug, Susie Cooper bowl, Clarice Cliff dish covered dish

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Title Annotation:	Features
Publication:	Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales)
Date:	Apr 7, 2012
Words:	380
Previous Article:	A question of design.
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