The Northern Ceramic Society & A new publication "Following in her father’s brush strokes: Charlotte Rhead (1885-1947)"

This post is to promote The Northern Ceramic Society. It is not specifically about Charlotte Rhead or Crown Ducal but a splendid organisation where “The objects of the Society shall be the advancement of the education of the public in the study of the manufacture of ceramics and the history of the ceramics industry”. 

I have been a member since 2018 after speaking at one of their meetings at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle while the museum was hosting my exhibition of Charlotte Rhead designed ceramics “Between Art and Industry”
https://rhead-crownducal.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-bowes-museum-summer-2018.html
Now is a timely moment to advertise the benefits of membership as one of our members has had a paper about Charlotte Rhead  published in the Society’s latest journal.

Charlotte Rhead (1885-1947) was born into a family of highly talented artists with both the paternal Rhead and maternal Hurten sides of the family exhibiting enormous creative skills and artistry within the four great art movements, Aesthetic, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau and Art Deco.

Without trying to re-balance Rhead family social history in favour of Charlotte, Richard Allman’s paper  ‘Following in her father’s brush strokes, Northern Ceramic Society Journal Volume 41 2026, presents new research and biographical facts that challenge some of the existing assumptions about the origins of her profound talents. 

This is an excellent addition to the biographies of Charlotte written by Bernard Bumpus more than 25 years ago and is recommended to collectors of Rhead ceramics. 

Information about the Journal and membership of the Northern Ceramic Society can be found on their website  www.northernceramicsociety.org. The society is currently in the middle of a major website upgrade, therefore if you cannot find what you are looking for:

There is a contact form on the website:

https://www.northernceramicsociety.org/contact-us/ 

And a general email address: 

northernceramicsociety@gmail.com

where further details can be requested.

Charlotte Rhead - Pattern 2799 Identified

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.

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.

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.

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.

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....."

Charlotte Rhead's design sources for Aztec (2800) and Stitch (3274)

It will come as no surprise to collectors of Charlotte Rhead pottery that it is easy to identify the inspiration for so many of her designs. Coming from a family of artists and a home full of art there would be no shortage of ideas.

It has been fascinating to follow the Rhead Cronin Collection sales at Bearnes Hampton and Littlewood where some tube-lined tiles are accompanied by pictures of the same subject painted by her father. It is wonderful to see the association of these artworks.

With regard to her Crown Ducal tube-lined portfolio there are several patterns where one can be reasonably confident of her inspiration source. Here are a few:

Primroses drawn by George Woolliscroft Rhead

• Primula could have been modelled so easily on her grandfather’s work at Copeland. Search with Google images for CF Hurten Copeland primroses and you should find what I mean. Or perhaps from George Woolliscroft Rhead's  "Studies in Plant Form" drawings.
• Manchu, the dragon was previously interpreted by her father when he was at Woods & Sons, but of course the Chinese version is yet much older still.
• Blossom uses a floral style crafted in slip clay very similar to a pattern that her father Frederick designed for Liberty & Co whilst he was working at Wardles.
• Omar, I’ll wager would have been inspired by her uncles George Woolliscroft and Louis who worked together on a project to illustrate the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

In the first tranche of the Rhead Cronin Collection sale on 17/12/2013, there were two lots that provided me with new insight into the design origins of Charlotte’s Crown Ducal designs, Stitch, (3274) and Aztec, 2800).

Stitch, (3274), design influence

 

Crown Ducal Stitch (3274) and Ditmar Urbach ewers.

Picture reproduced with kind permission of Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood

Lot 2 comprised of two Stitch, (3274), items and two ewers in a similar pattern by the Czech company, Ditmar Urbach. Bernard Bumpus notes the design connection between the two in the 1987 edition of his book and I have tried in vain to get definitive evidence of which design is the older. But with the Ditmar Urbach ewers in the possession of the Rhead family I feel that Charlotte probably based her design on the Czech pattern. 

Ditmar Urbach ceased to exist in its pre-war form after Germany took over the factory in 1938. This is well after 1933 when Stitch was designed, but I have been unable to determine the design date for their “version” of Stitch. Although this is all rather inconclusive the decider for me is that after Charlotte adapted the design for Crown Ducal she then adapted the shape of the ewer for her patterns at HJ Woods Bursleyware after WW2. The coincidences are too extraordinary to ignore.

If someone does have design date information for Ditmar Urbach patterns please let me know.

It should be emphasised that there is no mistaking the two productions. The glazes, shapes, backstamps, design details are obviously different when viewed side by side. Also the Czech version is not tube-lined, the stitches are thickly applied brown paint.

Ditmar Urbach style, left and Crown Ducal, right

Aztec, (2800), design influence 

 

Watercolours by Charlotte Rhead

Picture reproduced with kind permission of Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood

Lot 38 in the same sale were two watercolours by Charlotte Rhead of native North American women. One of the women’s clothes incorporates the stepped pyramid symbol similar to that used in her Aztec pattern pottery.

I do not know of any period references to Crown Ducal pattern 2800 and the design predates the start of the numbered surviving pattern books. Collectors prefer names rather than pattern numbers, and so the descriptions in the Bumpus books of the contemporary interest in Aztec architecture have lent the name Aztec to the design. 

Although the name Aztec is quite appropriate for the familiar design motif from the Latin American pyramids, I now believe that Charlotte was looking at North American culture and symbols rather than those from further south. Not only does Charlotte use the stepped pyramid for “Aztec”, but there is also the rare, unnumbered design with wavy lines in exactly the same colour palette and from around the same time as pattern 2800. My amateurish, quick look research on the internet finds that the stepped pyramid means “snow cloud” and the wavy line symbol means “running water”. 

Charlotte Rhead Crown Ducal 12" charger Aztec, (2800) with Snow Cloud motif

Charlotte Rhead Crown Ducal shape 148 unnumbered design with Running Water motif

If further evidence is required that Charlotte was thinking about native North American culture. Then study of the Crown Ducal pattern books reveals that pattern 3594 is a 17” Cotswold shape supper tray, (17” charger), enamelled with the profile of a native North American  chief. And there’s that stepped pyramid symbol again in the feathered headdress band.

Central design for Crown Ducal pattern 3594