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).

 

 

 

 

Charlotte Rhead - Fakes, Reproductions, Replicas

It is depressing to have to revisit this topic but it does not seem to be documented elsewhere. I believe it is a worthwhile since there always seems to be one or more examples on ebay at present.

This content is copied from my now deleted website which means that some readers may have seen all this before. However, there will be newcomers who might benefit from it being republished.

Basemarks found on reproductions

Items of pottery with backstamps similar to the ones pictured above are still circulating. These marks are composites of backstamps used by AG Richardson Crown Ducal Ware and HJ Wood Bursley Ware. Pottery with these types of backstamps are believed to be of modern manufacture. If you find them attractive then fair enough - but note that they are not the work of Charlotte Rhead, (1885-1947).

Below are examples of fakes/reproductions that carry these base marks. My apologies for the poor image quality but the pictures are from 15 years ago - however the same pots are doing the rounds today.

Examples of fake/reproduction pots bearing Rhead/Crown Ducal base marks

Most alarming is that fakes of pattern 4921 - Golden Leaves, have appeared on shapes 207 and 243, as well as more modern shapes. They look to be examples of the real thing, but if you check the backstamp markings and it includes a transfer “Charlotte Rhead” signature you will know it is a reproduction. Also the chargers are only 11.5” in diameter. Pattern 4921 - Golden Leaves is thought to be the only Rhead design that has been reproduced and so is the most likely to catch people out - but the items are moulded not tube-lined. All the other fakes/reproductions don't look anything like Crown Ducal Rhead designs or even Crown Ducal shapes and of course the raised decoration is moulded not tube-lined.

Shapes seen faked with pattern 4921 - Golden Leaves

The history of how these items with Charlotte Rhead signatures came about was documented in an article by the Maine Antique Digest back in 2004 but is not visible online now so here is a screen capture from then. It should be readable if you enlarge the jpg file.

Text from Maine Antique Digest

If you want to be really depressed here is a link to a web archived page of the vendor of these "reproductions" from 2004.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040628224243/http://www.lynostrading.co.uk/artdeco4.htm

At the bottom of the page you will see a 11.5" "charger stamped with original Charlotte Rhead Crown Ducal mark. Very very collectable"

Well, let's hope not.

Charlotte Rhead tube-lined designs using more than one slip colour

Whilst gathering material for the post on stitched edged designs I got distracted into looking at Charlotte Rhead’s tube-lined designs that used more than one colour slip. I have a feeling that this may have been quite a big deal at the time. We know that pattern 3049 is Charlotte’s first design that uses more than one colour slip clay. The stitched edge Cotswold tableware in orange and black became a good long running seller, possibly in production for 20 years.

I think that Charlotte put a lot of effort into exploiting the success of this technique to create other designs with multiple slip colours. None of these efforts came close to the success of pattern 3049, but I think she was motivated by being able to produce a product her competitors could not match. In the 1930s the pottery companies were copying each others designs without let or hindrance. But surely Richardson’s must have had an edge when it came to tube-lining because of Charlotte’s clever designs and her team of tube-liners.

Bernard Bumpus discusses tube-lining with multiple colour slips clays in his article “Tube-line Variations” in the magazine, Antique Collector of December 1985.  He reports how Jack Butler, who succeeded Frederick Rhead as art director at Woods in 1929, may have produced the Galleon charger using slip clay in three colours, (blue, black and brown). The charger is illustrated in the magazine and also a different example in plate 96 of "Collecting Rhead Pottery". The charger would have been made around 1930 and Charlotte would certainly have been aware of it and what other designers were producing with the tube-lining technique.

Jack Butler charger

Her role at Richardson’s was to produce commercial patterns rather than expensive art pottery, so she adapts the idea of multiple colour slip into a simple design that would not stretch the tube-liner too much and could produce it at an acceptable price. It does not appear that any other company was producing tube-lined tableware at this time. This is another example of Charlotte using her artistic skills and her team of tube-lining decorators to create a commercial success that Richardson’s competitors would find difficult to emulate.

Most of the 40-50 or so designs in the pattern books that use more that one slip colour are tableware. This is quite strange since tube-lined decoration is not resilient to the wear and tear of use especially with cutlery. Perhaps that is why the stitched edge Cotswold design was the only one that was popular and practical to use.

The patterns can be said to fit into 4 categories:

• Tableware usually on the Cotswold or Queen Anne shape
• The large salad bowls and platters for the USA market, (also referred to as punch bowls and 17” chargers) 
• Cabinet plates – ie tableware plates decorated with fancy designs for display only
• Fancies using Charlotte Rhead’s typical shapes for tube-lined decorative ware

I do not intend to create a definitive list of all these patterns. Most of the tableware, especially those on the Queen Anne shape have not been seen. Below are those that went into production because they have been seen and photographed.

I have written about some of these patterns before in my post on stitched edge tableware. In particular there are comments about 3049, 3172, 3260 and notes on some of the as yet undiscovered designs.
https://rhead-crownducal.blogspot.com/2017/03/tube-lined-stitched-edged-tableware.html

3049 (Niva) Stitched edge in orange & black on Cotswold tableware and large salad bowls and platters.

Pattern 3049 Niva

 3169 Tree centre with large stitched edge in orange & black on large salad bowls and platters.

Pattern 3169

3170 Dragon centre with large stitched edge in orange & black on large salad bowls and platters.

3172 Tree centre with large stitched edge in Danube and matt blues & salmon on large salad bowls and platters. A special pattern because it is believed to be Charlotte's only Crown Ducal design with 3 slip colours.

Pattern 3172 Tree Centre

3187 Trailing feather in orange & black on Cotswold tableware. Probably a very difficult pattern to tube-line. Even though the design is simple it must have required a skillful hand to tube-line the second colour adjacent to the first.

Pattern 3187

3191 Galleon in Danube and matt blues on Cotswold tableware and large salad bowls and platters.

Pattern 3191 Galleon

3205 Trailing laurel border and dots in Danube and matt blues on large salad bowls and platters. The picture shows the same design in single colour black slip, the pattern number of which is unknown but demonstrates the design was produced. Pattern 3205 would look like the border of 3218.

Pattern 3205

3212 Alternate lines in orange & black on Cotswold tableware.

Pattern 3212

3218 Blossom centre with trailing laurel border and dots in Danube and matt blues on large salad bowls and platters.

Pattern 3218 Blossom

3257 Blossom centre with large stitched edge in Danube and matt blues on large salad bowls and platters.

Pattern 3257 Blossom

3258 Blossom centre with large stitched edge in orange & black on large salad bowls and platters.

Pattern 3258 Blossom

3260 Florentine centre, intertwined stems and dentilled edge in Danube and matt blues on No3 cabinet plate.

Pattern 3260

3582 Y shaped edge motif edge in orange & black on Queen Anne tableware.

Pattern 3582

3584 (Perth) Scrolls and stars in orange & black on Queen Anne tableware.

Pattern 3584 Perth

4517 (Blossom) in Danube and matt blues with off blue glaze on fancies.

Pattern 4517 Blossom

4538 (Blossom) in Danube and matt blues with snow glaze on fancies.

Pattern 4538 Blossom

4898 Paired short lines in orange & black on Cotswold tableware.

Pattern 4898

4901 Dot & dash line in orange & black on Cotswold tableware.

Pattern 4901

4902 Wavy lines and dots orange & black on Cotswold tableware.

Pattern 4902