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Women’s History Month

February 26, 2025

Louise Irvine

Women’s History Month continues throughout March and we continue to celebrate women artists at WMODA. In Through the Looking Glass, we have highlighted female designers of pottery and glass from the Victorian era to the present day. In this issue, discover the talented women who broke the glass (or ceramic) ceiling during the Art Deco era!

Votes for Women

“Votes for Women” was the rallying cry until August 1920, when all American women were finally enfranchised. In Britain, agitation for women’s suffrage first succeeded with “Deeds Not Words” in 1918 and was equalized with men in 1928. Women also struggled to assert their rights in the workplace, as seen in the British pottery industry.

During the Victorian era, a woman’s place was in the home as the “angel of the household” and formal education was not customary for girls. In the late Victorian era, it became socially acceptable for women to become decorators of art pottery, and companies such as Doulton and Minton formed London studios that employed young female graduates from the new art schools. It was a different story in the Staffordshire Potteries, where women and children assisted men by doing heavy, laborious work. By the early 1900s, young girls typically entered the industry at the age of 13 and were trained to become pottery paintresses.

Daisy Makeig-Jones (1881-1945)

Daisy Makeig-Jones attended art school in the south of England but aspired to a career in the Staffordshire pottery industry. She joined the Wedgwood factory in 1909 as a trainee painter, despite her art school experience. At 28, she was twice the age of the other apprentices, and her middle-class background as the daughter of a doctor set her apart from all the girls. After a couple of years, she was invited to join the design team. Her first projects included producing patterns for nursery wares, which was considered appropriate for a female designer even though she had no children. In 1915, Daisy designed the first Fairyland Lustre patterns using Wedgwood’s new liquid lusters.

The lustrous jewel tones of Daisy’s magical designs caught the public's imagination during the Roaring Twenties, and wealthy customers escaped into a fantasy world of gilded forests populated with pixies and elves. Wedgwood’s fortunes improved with the phenomenal success of this new international luxury line. However, the Wall Street crash in 1929, which heralded the Great Depression, seriously impacted prosperity in the Potteries and Dasiy was asked to retire. Initially, she refused to leave and stormed out after a blazing row in 1931, smashing every piece on the shelves of her Wedgwood studio.

Clarice Cliff (1899-1972)

Like many young girls in the Staffordshire Potteries, Clarice Cliff left school at age 13 to start work as a decorator. However, this ambitious young woman rose rapidly to become the first female art director in the industry and the first to brand her work. Her exuberant Bizarre ware was launched in 1927 at A. J. Wilkinson’s factory and was an immediate success with women eager to brighten up their drab post-war surroundings. Within a year, Wilkinson’s entire Newport Pottery was given over to Bizarre ware, with 70 girls hand-painting geometric motifs and abstract flowers. Clarice designed both the shapes and the patterns for tableware and ornamental designs, traditionally a male domain.

The Colour Room, a 2021 movie about her life, is described as “the journey of a determined, working-class woman as she breaks the glass ceiling and revolutionizes the workplace in the 20th century.” In 2024, a commemorative blue plaque was unveiled on Clarice’s apartment in Stoke-on-Trent, an amazing tribute recognizing her importance as a trailblazing female designer in the pottery industry.

Fanny Rozet (1881-1958)

In France, Fanny Rozet was the first female sculptor to be accepted into the prestigious Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts, which was reserved for men until she started studying there in 1896. She created sculptures and decorative objects in many different materials, including ceramics, which were produced by art publishers, such as Goldscheider and Edmond Etling. One of her stunning Art Deco lamps is on display at WMODA.

Elena Konig (1886-1974)

In Italy, Elena Konig established the Lenci factory in Turin with her husband Enrico Scavini in 1919. ‘Lenci’ is an acronym from the Latin motto ‘Ludus Est Nobis Constanter Industria’ which means ‘Play is our constant work.’ Initially, Elena made felt boudoir dolls which were a craze with smart young women in the Roaring Twenties. Theatre and cabaret stars were photographed with their ‘poupees’ which they even took to Jazz Age dances.

Elena began designing ceramic figures in 1927 inspired by contemporary fashions. Nude sculptures were very popular during the Art Deco era and Elena’s Nudino range included young women perched on the backs of hippos, elephants and even fish. One of Elena’s most striking figurines features a young woman wearing nothing but a beret, sitting on top of the world.