2801 - Danube

Tube-lining: Danube blue Enamels & Lustres: Blue, yellow, pink, mauve & grey lustre. The pattern predates the surviving pattern books and consequently there is no reference source for the materials used.
Glaze: Mottled
Frequency Ranking: 16/50
Design Date: 1933
Production Period: 1933 - 1936
Pattern Name: The name Danube comes from indirect references in the Pottery Gazette and other supporting evidence.

Charlotte Rhead Crown Ducal pattern 2801 Danube
Pattern 2801 Danube

The tube-lining design is exactly the same as Byzantine 2681 except for the palette of colours used. There are three reasons for calling this pattern Danube rather than Byzantine.

1. An example has been seen with the pattern name tube-lined on the base.

2. The Pottery Gazette in February 1935 refers to the Danube pattern in the past tense when describing a large plaque in another pattern which is probably Blue Peony (4016). Referring to Danube in the past tense implies it has to be an early pattern and from this period the only tube-lined candidate with these colours, and without a name, is pattern number 2801.

3. The pattern books annotate blue tube-lining patterns with “Matt Blue”, (the paler of the blue slips), or “Danube Blue” slip. The naming of colours, lithographs, prints etc. with reference to previous designs that the workers were familiar with is a common occurrence throughout the Crown Ducal pattern books and so naming the slip colour after the first pattern that used dark blue slip makes reasonable sense.

Danube is the oldest design that appears to have had an production run that extended long enough that it can be found on the new shapes that started to be introduced in 1936. Several examples seen on shapes 207, 208, 209 and 211 with the period 2 backstamp style gives confidence to this premise, whereas Byzantine, (2681), an older, but more common pattern is very rare on this range of shapes.

The combination of pink purple and blue enamels used for Danube became a favourite colour palette for Charlotte. Collectors will find similar use of these colours in Granada (3321), Tudor Rose (4300), Posy (4521), Persian Leaf (5391) and Palermo (5803).