Charlotte Rhead
Encyclopedia
Burslem
The town of Burslem, known as the Mother Town, is one of the six towns that amalgamated to form the current city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England.-Topography:...
– 6 November 1947) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
ceramics
Ceramics (art)
In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as...
designer active in the 1920s and the 1930s in the Potteries area of Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
.
Charlotte Rhead was born into an artistic family. Her father Frederick Alfred Rhead
Frederick Alfred Rhead
Frederick Alfred Rhead was a potter working in North Staffordshire, England. He is not to be confused with his son Frederick Hurten Rhead who was also a potter, and who worked mainly in the USA. His other children included the pottery designer Charlotte Rhead.Rhead's father, G.W...
began his career as an apprentice at Mintons where he learnt the art of pâte-sur-pâte
Pâte-sur-pâte
Pâte-sur-pâte is a method of porcelain decoration in which a relief design is created on an unfired, unglazed body by applying successive layers of white slip with a brush...
ceramic decoration from Marc-Louis Solon
Marc-Louis Solon
Marc-Louis Solon was a French artist who moved to Stoke-on-Trent in 1870. He remained resident in England until his death.He is probably best remembered as a leading exponent of the technique of ceramic decoration called pâte-sur-pâte. His work commanded high prices in the late Victorian period...
. Frederick A. Rhead went on to work at a number of potteries including a failed venture of his own. Charlotte's mother Adolphine (née Hurten) also came from an artistic family. Charlotte's elder brother, Frederick Hurten Rhead
Frederick Hurten Rhead
Frederick Hurten Rhead was a native of England who worked as a potter in the United States for most of his career. In addition to teaching pottery techniques, Rhead was highly influential in both studio and commercial pottery...
, became a well-known pottery designer in the USA.
Career
At the beginning of the twentieth century the Rhead family was living in FentonFenton, Staffordshire
Fenton is one of the six towns of the Stoke-on-Trent conurbation which were federated in 1910. It is situated in the south-east of the city. Arnold Bennett called his fictionalised version of Stoke on Trent the "Five Towns", and Fenton has been dubbed the town Arnold Bennett...
where Charlotte and her sister Dollie studied at Fenton School of Art. Charlotte started work at Wardle and Co, a pottery in Hanley where her brother Frederick was art director before emigrating to the USA in 1902. Charlotte did not stay at the firm long but it gave her the opportunity to develop her skills as a tubeliner
Tubelining
Tubelining is a technique of ceramic decoration. It involves squeezing a thin line of clay body through a nozzle onto the ware being decorated. An alternative term is "slip trailing"....
, which would be useful to her in her future career as a designer. In 1905 Charlotte found employment as an enameller at Keeling & Co of Burslem
Burslem
The town of Burslem, known as the Mother Town, is one of the six towns that amalgamated to form the current city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England.-Topography:...
.
She was next employed as a designer at a tile-maker, T & R Boote. In 1912 Charlotte's father was appointed art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
of Wood and Sons, a firm which operated several potteries. Charlotte joined him there, taking charge of the tubeliners, and later working as a designer.
Charlotte is perhaps best known for her association with Burgess and Leigh of Middleport
Middleport, Staffordshire
Middleport is a residential and industrial district of the town of Burslem in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, England. Middleport lies to the west of Burslem, between Burslem town centre and the Newcastle-under-Lyme district of Porthill. To the north is Tunstall and to the south Cobridge and Etruria...
, (their factory is still operating as at 2009, but is now known as the Burleigh Pottery,) where she worked as a designer from 1926 until 1931. In the 1930s she moved to the firm of AG Richardson in Tunstall
Tunstall, Staffordshire
Tunstall is an area in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It was one of the original six towns that federated to form the city. Tunstall is the most northern town of the city of Stoke-on-Trent....
. Their brand name was Crown Ducal.
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Legacy
Rhead is noted for her cheerful tubelined designs. Her style was more traditional than that of Clarice CliffClarice Cliff
Clarice Cliff was an English ceramic industrial artist active from 1922 to 1963.Cliff was born in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, England.- Early life :...
and Susie Cooper
Susie Cooper
Susie Cooper was a prolific English ceramic designer working in the Stoke-on-Trent pottery industries from the 1920s to the 1980s.-Life and work:Born in Stanfields, Stoke-on-Trent, she was the youngest of seven children...
, her contemporaries. Rhead's ware was popular in her lifetime, and continues to fetch moderate prices at auction. Jessie Tait
Jessie Tait
Dorothy Jessie Tait was a prolific English ceramic designer working in the Stoke-on-Trent pottery industries, most prominently for Midwinter, from the 1940s to the 1980s.-Life and work:...
, another prolific ceramic designer, worked for Charlotte Rhead.
The leading authority on the Rhead family was Bernard Bumpus (1921–2004) who curated an exhibition about the Rhead family, Rhead Artists and Potters, which toured various UK museums in the 1980s. Bumpus's publications include Charlotte Rhead: Potter and Designer, 1987.
Media attention
In 1985 Rhead, Clarice CliffClarice Cliff
Clarice Cliff was an English ceramic industrial artist active from 1922 to 1963.Cliff was born in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, England.- Early life :...
, and Susie Cooper
Susie Cooper
Susie Cooper was a prolific English ceramic designer working in the Stoke-on-Trent pottery industries from the 1920s to the 1980s.-Life and work:Born in Stanfields, Stoke-on-Trent, she was the youngest of seven children...
were the subject of Pottery Ladies, a series of TV documentaries made for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
with the support of the Arts Council of Great Britain
Arts Council of Great Britain
The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. The Arts Council of Great Britain was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England , the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales...
. Susie Cooper was the only one of the three who was still alive by this time, but one of the 25-minute programmes includes interviews with paintresses and tubeliners who worked with Rhead.
External links
- Stoke-on-Trent Museums: This website gives information how to see Charlotte Rhead's designs at the Potteries Museum & Art GalleryPotteries Museum & Art GalleryThe Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free.One of the four local authority museums in the City, the other three being Gladstone Pottery Museum, Ford Green Hall and Etruria Industrial Museum, The Potteries Museum & Art...
, which has an important collection of Staffordshire pottery; some pieces can be viewed on-line - pieces by Charlotte Rhead to explore online. - Stoke-on-Trent Museums Info. Sheet: Partial Charlotte Rhead biography and reading list.
- Charlotte Rhead at thepotteries.org