Charlotte Rhead (19 October 1885 in

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. ...

– 6 November 1947) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

designer active in the 1920s and the 1930s in

the Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of ...

area of

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

. Charlotte Rhead was born into an artistic family. Her father

Frederick Alfred Rhead Frederick Alfred Rhead (1856–1933) was a potter working in North Staffordshire, England. He is not to be confused with his son Frederick Hurten Rhead (1880–1942) who was also a potter, and who worked mainly in the USA. His other children incl ...

began his career as an apprentice at

Mintons Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, ...

where he learnt the art of '' pâte-sur-pâte'' ceramic decoration from

Marc-Louis Solon Marc-Louis-Emmanuel Solon (1835 – 23 June 1913), pseudonym ''Miles'', was a renowned French porcelain artist. After beginning his career at the Sèvres Pottery, he moved to Stoke-on-Trent in 1870 to work at Mintons Ltd, where he became the le ...

. 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 (1880–1942) was a ceramicist and a major figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. A native of England, worked as a potter in the United States for most of his career. In addition to teaching pottery techniques, Rhead wa ...

, became a well-known pottery designer in the USA.

Career

At the beginning of the twentieth century the Rhead family was living in Fenton where Charlotte and her sister Dollie studied at Fenton School of Art. Charlotte started work at Wardle and Co, a pottery in the nearby town of

Hanley Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been the ...

, 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, 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

. 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 is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vis ...

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, where she worked as a designer from 1926 until 1931. (Their factory is still operating, as at 2014, as the Burleigh Pottery). In the 1930s she moved to the firm of AG Richardson in Tunstall. Their brand name was Crown Ducal.

Legacy

Rhead is noted for her cheerful tubelined designs. Her style was more traditional than that of

Clarice Cliff Clarice Cliff (20 January 1899 – 23 October 1972) was an English ceramic artist and designer. Active from 1922 to 1963, Cliff became the head of the factory creative department. Early life Cliff's ancestors moved from the Eccleshall area ...

and

Susie Cooper Susan Vera Cooper OBE (29 October 1902 – 28 July 1995) 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 Burslem, Staffordshire, she was the youngest ...

, her contemporaries. Rhead's ware was popular in her lifetime, and continues to fetch moderate prices at auction.

Jessie Tait Dorothy Jessie Tait (6 March 1928 – 14 January 2010) 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 Born in Stoke-on-Tre ...

, 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,

, and

were the subject of ''Pottery Ladies'', a series of TV documentaries made for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

with the support of the

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. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council ( ...

. 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.Pottery Ladies. Miss Cooper, Miss Cliff, Miss Rhead and all the forgotten girls...... (Charlotte Rhead)
Synopsis of film about Charlotte, The Arts Council Film Collection

References

External links

Stoke-on-Trent Museums
This website gives information how to see Charlotte Rhead's designs at the

Potteries Museum & Art Gallery The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Bethesda Street, 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, ...

, 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.

a
thepotteries.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhead, Charlotte English potters People from Fenton, Staffordshire 1885 births 1947 deaths Women potters 20th-century ceramists British women ceramicists

Career

Legacy

Media attention

See also

References

External links