VASE

This is a Crown Ducal Charlotte Rhead vase. Charlotte Antoinette Adolphine Rhead was born in Staffordshire,, England on the 19th October, 1885 at 12 Newport Street, Burslem, England. She was the fourth child to Frederick Alfred Rhead and Adolphine Rhead. Frederick, her father, was a pottery designer and it was her her paternal grandfather that had started the Fenton School for Art. Her father, had been an apprentice at Mintons and later had a pottery business of his own. Her mother had been an actress and singer. 

Charlotte and her sister Dollie studied at the Fenton School of Art. Charlotte learned most of her pottery skills from her father and specialised in tube-lining, a skilled form of decoration where slip (liquid clay) is squeezed from a rubber bag through a glass nozzle on to the ware. A process made famous by Moorcroft. Her elder brother Frederick Hurten Rhead was appointed as Art Director at the firm Wardle and Co, a pottery in Hanley, Staffordshire and Charlotte joined him but he left in 1902.

She left in 1905 to work as an enameller at Keeling & Co of Burslem. She moved from there to work as a tile-maker with T & R Boote. Her father was appointed art director of Wood and Sons in 1912 and she moved once more to work with him as a designer. She joined Burgess and Leigh of Middleport (the Burleigh Pottery) as a designer in 1926 and worked there until 1931. Between 1931 and 1943, her most prolific period, she worked at AG Richardson (Crown Ducal) in Cobridge in Tunstall, then in 1943 returned to Wood and Sons as Art Director. She died in 1947.

Charlotte Rhead is noted for her cheerful designs, more traditional than that of her contemporaries Clarice Cliff and Susie Cooper. Her pieces are usually marked with her name (sometimes L Rhead - Lottie) and with the manufacturers mark. Charlotte Rhead pottery is a well sought after by collectors, and her attractive pottery has a popular collector base.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme.