
Chetwynd House, Clarice Cliff's
home, during the 1940s.
In 1926, the Goodfellow house was bought by another Potteries businessman, Colley Shorter of Shorter & Son Ltd. Shorter renamed the house “Chetwynd House”, and lived there until his death in 1963. Ceramics enthusiasts will know Shorter’s name because his factory produced Clarice Cliff’s iconic wares and, in 1940, he married the designer.
What has this got to do with Philip Clissett? Only that, it seems, Shorter bought “Chetwynd House” with many or all of the original furnishings, including the Clissett chairs. The photograph at the head of this post shows Clissett’s chairs in the house during Clarice’s time, with Cliff-designed Shorter products on the dresser behind.**

then known as "Northwood", soon
after it was built in 1899. Clissett
ladderback to left.
*Parker, B. (1910). Modern country houses in England: number three. The Craftsman, Vol 18(3), pp324-334; also plates B84 and B85 in The Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art 1908. [Thanks to Paul Shutler for drawing the latter to my attention.]
**This photograph appears in Griffin, L. (1998). The Fantastic Flowers of Clarice Cliff. Pavilion, London. [The ownership and whereabouts of this photograph is not clear. If anyone knows, or if there are copyright issues, please let me know.]