Rare unnumbered patterns from period 1 (1932-1934)

The six designs presented in this post have the AGR9 backstamp suggesting they were made in the first two years of Charlotte being at Crown Ducal. None of them have pattern numbers or are recorded in the surviving pattern books. Though it should be noted that the pattern books start with number 2900 leaving the possibility that they may have been documented at some time and the information has since been lost.

They were probably trial designs that did not progress to upscaled production. Each pattern is very rare, being represented by a single or at most two known examples. A possible exception being the lidded jampot where the relatively simple tube-lining looks clumsily done and therefore this may have been more of a training piece than a design proposal.

An unnumbered design from the period but not included here is the nurseryware pattern "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf". It is quite hard to find but the design is not as rare as the other patterns listed here. It remained in production until at least 1938/9 and it is a mystery why it was not given a pattern number amongst the cluster of other nurseryware patterns, 3130-3135.

0000-P1-A

Only one example seen. A finely tube-lined pattern of flowers and leaves. It has an unusual mottle glaze of two tones of green on ivory and the signature style is that by the tube-liner who used the # mark. Her name is unknown but her mark can be found on the earliest productions and she was probably Charlottes most experienced tube-liner until Fanny Morrey arrived some months later. 

 

0000-P1-B

Two examples seen, (one uncoloured) on bowls of shape 174. Both have the signature by the tube-liner who used the # mark. The one with coloured enamels has an unusual green mottle on ivory glaze. The uncoloured one has a mottle glaze similar to pattern 3272 (Rhodian).

The layout and style of leaves, flowers and stems is reminiscent of her first design for Burgess & Leigh, Burleigh Ware pattern 3973. There are also similarities to her Pomona pattern for Bursley Ltd This is a good example of Charlotte recycling her favourite motifs.

Burleigh Ware pattern 3973

0000-P1-C

Only one example seen. It has a Lottie Rhead style signature so may have been tube-lined by Charlotte’s own hand. This leaf style is not typically found in Charlotte's other designs but this stylised form of beech leaves, (or possibly hazel or mountain ash) is very common in editions of a craft design magazine of the period, (L'Artisan Pratique) which she would surely have had access to.

 

0000-P1-D

Only one example seen. A vase of an unnumbered shape. 25.5 cm high. The shape has been seen in smaller sizes with Rhead tube-lined designs.

It has a Lottie Rhead style signature so may have been tube-lined by Charlotte’s own hand. The tube-lining is extremely finely executed which supports the premise.

The design is interesting as it is clearly a prototype for pattern number 4534 which is in the pattern book but has not yet been seen. The central panel is similar to the drawing in the pattern book but the upper and lower borders are different. These borders are more akin to those found on pattern 3272 (Rhodian).

It has mix of known Charlotte motifs and includes the core design of what will become Bursley Ware pattern TL2.

 

0000-P1-E

Only one example seen. Apart from the backstamp it has no other base markings. It has the glazes and colours of patterns 2799, 2800 (Aztec), possibly 3273 and 3274 (Stitch) and a tube-lined stitched edge, but is not a convincing variation of any of these.It may be a practice piece rather than a trial design.

 

0000-P1-F

Only one example seen. A jug of unknown and unmarked shape. Being 18cms high it is probably a modified form of a shape 149 vase. Glazed with the “Green Padua" glaze used for the Persino and Primula patterns.

 

 

0000-P1-G

Two examples are known both on the bowl shape 174 and both with the signature style of Dora Jones. They are glazed with the “Green Padua" glaze used for the Persino and Primula patterns.

 

 

 

 

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 - The Iris Charger

The Iris pattern charger made an exciting appearance more than 25 years after its period of fame in the 1980s. It was sold at auction on 5^th July 2013 at Tennants, Leyburn.

http://www.tennants.co.uk/Catalogue/Lots/199297.aspx

There were four items in the lot. Apart from the Iris charger there was another silent star of the Pottery Ladies film, the Persian Leaf bowl which sits on the table while Rose discusses tube-lining. Also of interest was an experimental colour variation of Foxglove on a 12” charger. The leaf colours are in the usual Cairo and emerald green but whereas the charger border is usually in the same shade of Cairo as the leaves, this example has a full strength dark Cairo border so it appears that the charger has three different green enamel colours, (enlarge the image in the Tennants link above).

There were some other lots at the auction with important and previously unrecorded Crown Ducal, Rhead designs. If I am correct in assuming they came from the same source then probably the 5623 charger and definitely the 5803 bowl in lot 338 also featured in the Pottery Ladies film. There was also a splendid galleon vase, which must surely be another Rhead rare design. See Peters blog for more details:
http://www.rheadpottery.com/charlotte-rhead/mysterious-galleon-vase-charlotte-rhead/

Charlotte Rhead tube-lined Iris charger of "Pottery Ladies" fame at Tennants

The colourful Iris charger (12”) featured in the Pottery Ladies TV programme in 1985.

Then, during 1986-1987 it went on tour, to London, Bradford, Bristol and Stoke-on-Trent with the “Rhead: Artists & Potters 1870-1950” exhibition.

Bernard Bumpus also included it in his book of 1987, “Charlotte Rhead Potter & Designer”.

Since it is one of the few Charlotte Rhead designed Crown Ducal items that has some documented history attached to it, I thought it might be interesting to bring together what is known about it.

Charlotte Rhead DVD

For more info:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120211135847/http://artsonfilm.wmin.ac.uk/films.php?a=view&recid=152

In the Pottery Ladies documentary, Rose Dickenson is holding the charger and tells her anecdote relating to the charger.

Miss Rhead did this as a pattern, you know, as a sample actually.

And she said, “Well I don’t know Rose”, she says, “Whether it will become a seller”. She says “It could be”, she says, “But I think it will be too expensive to do. To put the gold on and to commercialise it”.

So I said, “Well Miss Rhead the pattern you did, it is still on the table, if you haven’t any further use for it could I possibly have it?”

She says, “Would you like it Rose?

I said, “Yes”.

She was a little bit on her R’s but very fascinating to talk to.

And she said, “Can you pay for it Rose before you take it off the works, that is important”.

And I said, “Yes”, because you couldn’t take anything off the works that wasn’t accounted for.

I treasured it, I’ll tell you, and especially something that Charlotte herself had done.

So from this, it has to be assumed that Rose Dickenson became the owner soon after the charger was made.

Rhead: Artists & Potters 1870-1950

Bernard Bumpus created a series of exhibitions in conjuction with the Geffrye Museum during 1986-1987,  the catalogue he compiled became the basis for his two books on Charlotte and the Rhead family in general. The venues and dates were:

Geffrye Museum, London, 7 March- 25 May 1986
Cartwright Hall, Bradford, 6 July - 8 September 1986
Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, 26 October - 7 December 1986
City Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, 7 February - 9 May 1987

Copies of the exhibition catalogue can sometimes be found on bookfinder.com if you are interested – just search with keywords geffrye rhead:
http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?keywords=geffrye+rhead&mode=advanced&st=sr&ac=qr

Extract from Geffryre Museum catalogue

With regard to the Iris charger there are some relevant points to note.

• The charger is illustrated in the catalogue.
• F19 is the catalogue entry for the exhibit. The charger still has the original exhibition sticker on the reverse with F19. Anyone who bought items at the Bernard Bumpus Collection sale at Halls, Shrewsbury on 9^th February 2011 will be familiar with these stickers as some of those items were exhibited at the same exhibition and had retained their stickers at the time of the auction.
• Mrs Norah Dobbs was the owner of the charger at the time of the exhibition and also features in the Pottery Ladies film. So perhaps the charger changed hands between Rose and Norah some time before the Pottery Ladies film was made?
• Bumpus annotates the entry with “Charlotte Rhead almost certainly tubed the iris flower herself on this trial piece and would have closely supervised the application of the mottled glazes. The standard border was executed by the tube-liner Fanny Morrey. The design was not commercially produced.”

Charlotte Rhead Potter & Designer

In 1987, after the exhibition Bernard Bumpus published his book. There is an image of the charger, (not the same one as in the exhibition catalogue), and a brief description under the “Patterns without numbers” section. It is recorded as “Naturalistic Iris in blue, yellow, pink with green leaves. Mottled blue and purple ground. Not commercially produced.”

Sotheby’s 1987?

The charger has a previous auction label on the reverse recording that it may have been in an auction at Sotheby’s in Chester on 7^th September 1987. I have not been able to confirm this.

The exhibition ended in May 1987 and so presumably the owner consigned it for auction soon after.

Tennants 2013

The charger reappears at auction in an antiques and interiors sale on 5^th July 2013 at Tennants, Leyburn, without any of its history in the description, but with publicity on the internet it does not go by unnoticed.

What else is known?

The charger has the usual 1935-1938 backstamp style and has the facsimile signature of Fanny Morrey.

The glaze has been used before, it is documented and known as “Glaze 78”. The only numbered pattern that uses it is 5981, (Floretta). This pattern is illustrated in a previous post, (the last image):

http://rhead-crownducal.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/print-enamel-decoration-in-1930s.html

The same glaze appears to have been used for a version of Persian Leaf/Tarragona. You can see an example on George Conners website:
https://web.archive.org/web/20101112194205/http://charlotterhead.jimdo.com:80/crown_ducal.php

Scroll down to the image after 5391 titled “Persian Leaf unusual colour way”.

Crown Ducal documents of the period record the following details for “Glaze 78”

Inside weakened yellow

Outside Blown White Matt Harrisons

Top Mottled    

29 green

                        Yellow

                        Mauve

                        Blue

Foot

                        29 green

                        Off green

Fox brown

Lightly mottled primrose over plain white parts.

Based on the design date for Tarragona/Persian Leaf, (1938), which has examples with the same glaze and backstamp, and the fact that most examples of  5981, (Floretta), have younger backstamps than the one on the Iris charger, it seems most likely that the Iris charger was made in 1938.

Iris charger - centre detail

There is not much else to say except that it is good so see it again and that it is safe and sound.

Greystone glaze

This post records the Crown Ducal patterns that used the “Greystone” glaze. A white and grey mottle, high gloss glaze much favoured by Charlotte Rhead and used for some of her most popular tube-lined designs. Early references in Crown Ducal documents call the glaze “grey mottle”, but it gets renamed later to Greystone.

The grey mottle, Greystone glaze

Not many patterns have this glaze, although collectors will be familiar with the five tube-lined patterns, Patch 4015, Blue Peony 4016, Persian Rose 4040, Persian Leaf 5391 and Caliph 5411. Or if you are very lucky you may have acquired one of the various special colour variations of Persian Leaf that appear from time to time.

Tube-lined designs by Charlotte Rhead with the Greystone glaze

Another of her designs for fancies was 3728 and this is believed to be the first use of the glaze. It is not tube-lined but has enamelled leaves and bands in pink with gold lines and detail. Bernard Bumpus mistakenly recorded the pattern number as 5728 but it is described and illustrated in his book.

There is another simple design, number 3774 with green bands and copper lines, but I have yet to see an example. The next pattern for fancies with Greystone glaze and yet to be found is 4534. Some will recognise it as HJ Woods Bursley Ware pattern TL2. Bumpus has pictures of TL2 in his book and he also records the entry 4534 as a Crown Ducal Rhead pattern. Although the patterns are virtually identical, there is no mention of tube-lining in the Crown Ducal pattern books, We will just have to wait until one turns up to inspect it! As an aside, regarding the design, an early tube-lined prototype exists with different top and bottom border motifs and glazed more like Byzantine 2681.

The final entry for fancies, and again as yet unseen, is 6065. It is a freehand floral design of simple trailing green leaves and scarlet and purple flowers with black tracery for the stems.

I have found nine entries for tableware with the glaze:

• 3781 Cotswold shape, pink band, gold line
• 3798 Cotswold shape, pale and dark crimson brown bands
• 3932 No2 shape, gold rim up to embossment, crimson brown and pink lines
• 3976 No1 shape, green band, gold edge
• 4004 No3 shape, dentilled edge in two greens and green leaf motif on shoulder
• 4005 No2 shape verge embossment picked out in enamels, gold edge
• 4172 No2 shape with “Charm” floral transfer in centre, gold edge
• 4194 No1 shape with feather and dot motif in verge
• 4202 No2 shape with print and enamel floral design

Only the last entry, number 4202 has been seen to date, so I do not think it was a popular glaze for tableware.


Pattern 4202, a print and enamel tableware design with Greystone glaze

I have not found any direct evidence that the glaze is her invention, but Charlotte was fond of using this glaze. The earliest designs with it are either definitely hers or have motifs associated with her, so there is the possibility she had a hand in its creation. Support for this comes from the annotation in the pattern book for 3781, which says "See Miss Rhead". This design is not illustrated, but could be a tableware version of pattern 3728, perhaps without the leaf motif. Also, designs 4004 and 4194 incorporate leaf or feather motifs known to be hers.

Now for the inspiration that made me look at Greystone glaze. A 14" charger with freehand enamelled decoration. No pattern number and it is not recorded in the Crown Ducal documents I have seen. The charger has the typical backstamp style that was used during the period 1935-1938. I am bound to say that the design feels very much like the work of Charlotte Rhead.

14" charger freehand enamelled design with Greystone glaze

Pattern detail on charger

Looking at the design and colours, the rim decoration of paired coloured lines reminds me of Omar 4036 and Basket 6198. The leaves are simplified versions from Blue Peony 4016. The colour palette is the same as Patch 4015, with the addition of the blue from Blue Peony. And of course, Greystone glaze. It is a lovely balanced design and worthy of having Charlottes name associated with it.

Those are the Greystone glaze patterns, but Charlotte returns to the glaze style in 1940 with her Trellis patterns, 6016 and 6017. Not Greystone, but Brownstone, and this is the name documented with the design. A series of pottery baskets were made with Brownstone glaze too, some with the Pinafore transfer, 6036-6039 and some without, 6058-6061.


Detail of Trellis 6016 with Brownstone glaze

Pattern 6069 is the Brownstone glaze with green rims top and bottom and with the small Pinafore floral transfers for fancies. If you are unsure what the Pinafore transfer looks like there is a picture that shows them in a previous post about the Premier shape:
http://rhead-crownducal.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/crown-ducal-tableware-shape-premier-or.html

The same blend of Brownstone glaze, green rims and detail together with Pinafore transfers was applied to the Gordon shape tableware. The baskets, vases and tableware occasionally appear for sale at auction, but they rarely get noticed.

Drawing to a close with a poignant observation. The last numbered pattern in the surviving Crown Ducal pattern books, (before the book gets used for other purposes), is number 6367. It is exactly the same as pattern 6069, but not with Brownstone, it has Greenstone glaze. It would be good to think that Charlotte was experimenting to the end. This would be the early summer of 1941. The government had initiated restrictions on pottery manufacture in March 1941 and further restrictions on decorated pottery would soon come into force. Employees were already leaving to work for the war effort and Charlotte's departure from the company was imminent.

There are a couple of tube-lined patterns, 6567 and 6659 that have Greystone glaze but were not produced until Charlotte had left the company. It is difficult to date these designs, (best guess is 1942), but they were almost certainly made while the Board of Trade restrictions were in force. A high proportion of examples are found in Australia and New Zealand which is to be expected as decorated pottery was destined for the export market.

It is not quite the end though, just as I said in my post on Snow glaze that Charlotte took it with her to Woods, you can see the reinvented Greystone glaze on many of her Bursley Ware patterns. It is different, the grey is more subtle, but this is still Charlotte's Greystone glaze!

BursleyWare TL.43 & TL.65 with a softer version of the Greystone glaze

Edited 19th March 2019 to remove invalid links.