4036 - Omar

Tube-lining: Black
Lustres: Goods blue, scarlet, Blythe Acacia yellow, Emerald green, Cairo green, 175 green & Scientific brown
Glaze: Fawn with dark mottle
Frequency Ranking: 46/50
Design Date: 1935
Production Period: 1935
Pattern Name: No period reference found but clearly from Omar Khayyam, the author of the original text in the design.
Charlotte Rhead Crown Ducal pattern 4036 Omar
Pattern 4036 Omar
The name of this pattern comes from the author of the lines of verse tube-lined in the design. “Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough. A flask of wine a book of verse and thou.” Taken from the translation by Edward FitzGerald of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. This pictorial design with all the script was probably expensive to produce and buy, consequently examples are quite rare.

All the examples seen have been of the 4036 version in the colours listed above, characterised by the blue and scarlet enamelled stitch pairs on the edge and green line. The as yet, unseen, version 4038 has blue and green enamelled stitch pairs on the edge and puce line and finished with a blue glaze.

The design is an unusual one compared with Charlottes other work at Crown Ducal, her only other pictorial patterns with figures being the nursery ware designs. This is an example of Charlotte being inspired by the art she experienced from a life spent surrounded by artistic family and friends. According to Bumpus, her uncles, George Wooliscroft and Louis John had worked on illustrations for a proposed new version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and so the subject and perhaps even the style of the design was one that she was already familiar with. 
References of the period:
Pottery Gazette and Glass Trades Review, April 1935 page 515

This photograph from the Pottery Gazette shows two Charlotte Rhead tube-lined patterns. On the left is 4088 Patch on a shape 207 vase and adjacent to the lamp is 4036 Omar on a shape 199 handled vase.

The other items in the picture are a lamp in pattern 4134 or 4135, the cup and saucer at the front is in the Victory shape and probably from the Ellesmere, Wenlock or Breedon range of patterns, (4009, 4010, 4011). The plate and covered dish are also Victory shape but with the Pussy Willow design, (3750 or 3792).