It is always a joy to discover a new fragment of knowledge
about Charlotte Rhead and her designs for Crown Ducal. Here is another piece of the jigsaw puzzle!
While browsing the lots at an auctioneers this week I came across a mixed lot of ceramics that included a
bowl in what I call the “Running Water” pattern. I have mentioned this design in
a previous posting,
https://rhead-crownducal.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/charlotte-rheads-design-sources-for.html
and discussed its association with the Aztec pattern 2800. Below is the image
used in that previous post with the same caption.
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| Charlotte Rhead Crown Ducal shape 148 unnumbered design with Running Water motif |
The bowl at the auction was in a distressed state with chips
and enamel losses, but the exciting thing was that it had a pattern number of
2799. Certainly one that is unrecorded in the Bumpus books and also absent from
the surviving Crown Ducal pattern books which start at 2900 for Rhead era
designs.
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| Charlotte Rhead Crown Ducal bowl pattern 2799 with Running Water motif |
A pattern number of 2799 is perfect because being adjacent
to 2800 for Aztec, and with the same colour palette helps confirm that they might come from the same
design inspiration of native North American symbols.
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| Basemarks of pattern 2799 bowl |
All the line work is tube-lined of course, but the stitches or dots on the rim are all worn of colour and relief so I think these were enamelled rather than tube-lined. The shape 148 vase, above, does not have rim stitches so it cannot be compared. I have recorded another shape 148 vase, but without handles featured in the Miller's Antiques guide of 1999. That had a black stitched edge, but the stitches do not appear to be raised so I am inclined to believe they are enamelled decoration.
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| An example of pattern 2799 from the Miller's Antiques Guide 1999 edition |
The nice tube-lined signature is Charlotte's own rather than one of her decorating team. The backstamp style indicates the item was made pre-1935. This is correct for an item designed in the spring of 1933 and for a pattern that did not go into commercial production. There are tantalising paintress marks which appear to be the initials M.S. This is unusual because the paintresses invariably used numbers to identify their work.
Gerrard Shaw compiled a list of employees for his book on Crown Ducal, and in that list he has an enameller named Millicent Sanders who worked from 1928 until post war. I am hesitant to say this must be her work because I do not know of any precedent of identifying a named Crown Ducal paintress from base markings. But, there has to be a reasonable possibility for a connection. It reminds me of the title sequence of the Pottery Ladies TV film where after mentioning Miss Cliff, Miss Cooper, Miss Rhead, the title script ends with "AND ALL THE FORGOTTEN GIRLS....."
