Forest Seat Pad 540 x 500 mm
Garland Chair 325 x 325 mm and 365 x 220 mm (following page)
Garland Stool 380 x 285 mm (following page)
These two designs were inspired by Clarice Cliff. The Quineys, like many suburban, middle-class, London families had examples of tea-sets, vases, cruet sets, and knick-knacks designed by Clarice Cliff whose work had been extremely popular in the nineteen-thirties. The designs ranged from stylised flowers and country scenes to geometric abstracts and usually the chosen colours were bright and cheerful. During the war years when we were on holiday at East Dean and I built camps with my chums Michael Hopper and Kris Ellam, mother gave me a variety of odds and ends of china which we could use to make our children’s camps more homelike.
Amongst this collection of stuff were quite a few Clarice Cliff pieces which, surprisingly remained whole and un-chipped until they were finally put away, wrapped in newspaper and boxed for another use in another time. In the Quiney family, nothing – well practically nothing was thrown away. When I left the family nest and set up my own home, the box of Clarice Cliff oddments accompanied me and when I eventually unpacked it in the late nineteen sixties, I couldn’t resist showing them off on my bookshelves as they were such a reminder of a very happy childhood. During that decade Clarice Cliff, along with the art nouveau and art deco styles started to become very interesting to me and both influenced my gift-wrap designs. Forest and Garland are just a couple that I have turned into needle-point.