Clara Stevenson – Gilder and Lustrer 1893-1974

 

 

Clara Stevenson

Two photographs have been brought to my attention that show the Art Director William Johnson with some of his decorating team at A G Richardson & Co Ltd. They are believed to date from around 1921.

The photographs include Clara Stevenson, (nee Molineaux) who was a gilder and lustrer decorating Crown Ducal ware from the 1920s until the 1950s, which would have included the tube-lined designs of Charlotte Rhead.

The permission to show these photographs and information comes from Penny the granddaughter of Clara to whom I am most grateful for letting me share them.

Clara Molineux was born on the 6^th March 1893 at 24 Luke Street in Burslem. The 1911 census records Clara as a gilder. Clara marries Willian Stevenson, (an iron and steel worker and shunter) on the 8^th April 1917 at the Congregational Church, Moorland Road, Burslem. They have one son Dennis, born 5^th  December 1917.  The 1921 census has the family home as 33 Wedgwood Street and includes Clara’s mother Annie Forde Molineaux. William’s paternal grandmother Mary Stevenson was living at number 19 Wedgwood Street. Their fathers were both deceased by then.

In 1921 Clara was working for A G Richardsons & Co. Ltd. at the Gordon Pottery, Tunstall.  She had previously been to the Burslem Art School and later worked for H J Wood Ltd until she retired in the 1950s, but is known to have been invited back on occasion to complete orders requiring special lustre work.

Apart from her ceramic decorating work Clara was an able seamstress and knitter. Her granddaughter recalls her doing a lot of sewing, making clothes, suits and loose covers, knitting and crocheting. Also, later in life at the age of 80 she travelled further afield visiting relatives in Calgary. Clara died at 138 Dimsdale Parade, Wolstanton on 25^th September 1974.

For anyone who has Gerrard Shaw’s book on Crown Ducal Ware, you will find Clara’s name in the appendices listing employees under Gilders and Lustrers. In the book Collecting Rhead Pottery by Bernard Bumpus Clara also has a mention in the list of decorators in the chapter on H J Wood Ltd.

It is almost certain that the other ladies in the photographs were decorators of Crown Ducal ware in the early 1920’s so if anyone can add names to faces or be more precise as to when the photographs were taken then please do get in touch. 

 

Crown Ducal decorators 1920s

Crown Ducal decorators 1920s

Roland Heath - Designer 1908 - 1995

I am very pleased to add a second biography to the blog. Roland Heath was a designer at Crown Ducal in the 1920's who was involved in designing and producing the Radiance Lustre series of designs for the company in 1927. Roland's granddaughter, Suzanne has written this biography and kindly offered it to be published on the blog so that others with in interest in ceramic history can know more about one of Crown Ducal's designers.

Roland Heath

Roland was born in 1908 to William & Sarah Heath at 2, Lindley Street, Stoke.  He was the youngest of 5 children, all of which were very musical.  In 1918 they moved to 41, Rushton Road, Cobridge.

Roland was a talented artist, with a flair for design, and there is a record of him first working as a ‘messenger’ at Burslem College of Art in 1921, only 13 years old.  In 1923 he won a Senior Art scholarship from the Borough of Stoke-on-Trent, and he spent 3 years studying there under Gordon Forsyth.  From 1924 – 1928 college records show Roland as a ‘senior designer’, presumably as he also worked for Gray’s Pottery while he was a student.  Also at the college at the same time was Susie Cooper (a distant cousin from his mother’s side), who is on the register from 1919 – 1925 as a ‘pottery designer’, and Clarice Cliff, who can be seen in the records as working there in 1924 as a ‘pottery decorator’. 

Some of Forsyth’s students copied or used his techniques including the lustre glazes. Forsyth developed the Gloria Lustre for Gray’s in the early 1920s while Roland Heath was his student. An example of this can be seen at the V&A, with Roland Heath credited as the painter, Forsyth as the designer, c. 1925:   

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1261257/gloria-lustre-bowl-forsyth-gordon  

Roland Heath left Gray’s and went to work for Crown Ducal in around 1927. At Crown Ducal he developed the Radiance Lustre Glaze (a version of Gray’s Gloria). He is believed to have created 40+ patterns, but nobody knows how many as most of them aren't marked. We still have a couple of identical vases, which I seem to remember my mother telling me were ‘practice‘ vases.  These have his RHEATH mark which can be seen on other pieces of this period:

 

Practice vase

Base of practice vase

In 1927 Roland supplemented his income by selling many of his designs for Christmas cards, sold through the British and Dominion School of Drawing in London. Some panels were bought by the Association of Home Crafts Studio Ltd (we have letters and receipts for some of these).

In 1929 he obtained a position as an artist with S Hancock & Sons of Burton Place, Hanley.  At the end of 1930, Roland left his job in Hanley and went to work for a design studio in Wembley, lodging with his sister Dorothy.  In 1933 he took a position with Cinema Signs.  I have these in a file of his: 

Roland's printed designs from 1930's

Roland's printed designs from 1930's

In 1934 he married Peggy Hunt (see photo) and moved to Harrow. They had 2 children, Gillian & Robert.

Peggy and Roland

Here is a photo of grandpa holding my mother Gillian.

Gillian & Roland

I don’t have any information about where he worked or what he did from then on. The only ceramics we have of Roland’s are a hand-painted coffee set, and the vases above.  This coffee set has a more curly mark (see photos). I’m afraid I don’t have dates for these.  Unfortunately, when he got older and his mind was not so clear, we were very saddened that he had given away a lot of his pieces which we would have treasured!

Coffee set

 

Coffee set basemarks

Granpa was a lovely, gentle man.  I have many happy memories of visiting him when I was young,  He was a very creative man, who loved amateur dramatics, singing and playing the piano. My mother said she grew up in a house where there were always people coming over, singing and playing music into the night.  He would always be so pleased to see us and wanted to hear us play the piano for him.

Sadly, my mother died in September, so I am unable to find out any more history than what I have here.  I do have a folder of some of his old artwork though (no dates).