Stans collectors forum

Stan Prickett of Yande Meannjin Antiques has been in the business for 30 years. He has been at the Paddington Antique Centre for 27 years. He deals in ceramics, glass, silver and small collectable items of substance & quality. He is a registered commonwealth valuer for glass, ceramics and Australian pottery, secretary of Queensland Antique Dealers Association, Treasurer and life member of the Queensland Antique & Collectables Society, Member Queensland Wedgewood Society and Member Australian Society. He is one of the most respected dealers in Australia and we are delighted to have him as our resident antiques guru. Each month Stan will give an insight into the world of collectable antiques.

Charlotte Rhead

Charlotte was born into a well known pottery family on 19 October 1885 and died on 8 November 1947. Due to her shy, reserved nature, she was not well known in her lifetime and very little of her private life, personality or professional career (apart from Company records) is known.

Unlike Clarice Cliff and to a lesser extent, Susie Cooper, Charlotte Rhead was generally not an original designer nor was she a “modernist.” The derivation of a few of her designs is directly traceable and her patterns were adapted from many different historical and contemporary sources. Her recognition and artistic merit lay in the fact that she was able to combine several ideas into a single entity. Having produced a design, she was able to adapt and modify it for application to many differing shapes. Charlotte Rhead became an expert in tube lining, a highly skilled and difficult process requiring considerable control and a steady hand, at a young age having been taught the process by her father and two brothers.

She attended the Fenton Art School and commenced work in 1901 as a tube liner with Wardle & Co where her brother, Frederick Hurten was Art Director. In 1905, she left Wardle & Co to join Keeling and Co., as an enameler but missed the tube lining work and her father attempted, unsuccessfully, to convince William Moorcroft to employ her. Moorcroft was concerned that Charlotte would learn his methods, leave and become a “threat” in the marketplace.

In 1908, she worked for her father at the Atlas Tile Works but this business was not successful and it collapsed in 1910. Following the collapse of the Atlas Tile Works, Charlotte worked for a number of firms before joining Wood & Sons in 1912, where her father was Art Director. Here she trained others in tube lining techniques for a while and commenced design work in 1915. By 1922 she was working for Bursley Ltd., a subsidiary of Woods & Sons, designing tube lined wares.

Her output during the early 1920’s was considerable with many designs being illustrated in the trade press but without any reference to her name. In 1926, Charlotte left Wood & Sons and joined Burgess & Leigh where she designed tube lined patterns. It was around this time that her designs began to be marked on the base with her name and references to her began to appear in the trade press.

In 1931 Charlotte left Burgess & Leigh and commenced working at A. G. Richardson, Tunstall, producers of the Crown Ducal range of ceramics, where she continued to work for the next 11 years turning out a large range of designs many of which were best sellers.

Most of her work consists of utilitarian shapes like bowls, jugs, plaques and vases but she also designed tableware, children's ware and some items with free hand decoration. Charlotte was also credited with developing a range of new shapes, lustres and glazes including a snow glaze that was a sensation when released in 1935.

Like Clarice Cliff, the outbreak of World War II in 1939 imposed severe restrictions on production and she left Richardsons in 1942 only to rejoin Wood & Sons at the Alexandria factory, Burslem in the same year, designing and producing another series of tube lined wares that to quote one author “had a distinctively dejavu look about them.”

War time restrictions meant that production of “fancy” wares took a long time to get going and was just picking up in 1947 when cancer, (which had been first diagnosed in 1939,) returned. Charlotte worked from home for a short time but her conditioned worsened and she died on 8 November 1947. Most of her early work is unsigned but tube lined work and other designs done for Wood & Sons that can be attributed to her include Trellis (designed by her father).

Elers, Lottie Rhead ware, Seed Poppy, Persian, Laredo and Pomona. Even though a vast amount of her later work includes a facsimile signature on the base and/or a pattern number, the absence of either does not drastically affect the price.

Burgess & Leigh (Burleigh Ware) patterns include bands of anemones, Japanese style flowers, fruits, Gouda, peony flowers, Sylvan, Garland, Florentine, Cretonne, Blossom, Carnival and Orchard.

Richardsons (Crown Ducal) patterns include Primula, Byzantine, Palermo, Rhodian, Stitch, Granada, Hydrangea, Omar, Persian, Rose, Patch, Manchu, Coronation ware, Indian Tree, Wisteria, Golden Leaves and Foxglove.

Later H. J. Woods patterns included Zigzag, Trellis, Daisy, Peony, Dragon, Woodland and a design of wind tossed tulips.

Like Clarice Cliff’s work, some patterns are common while others are rare and in fact, examples of some recorded patterns have not surfaced to date. Although examples of Charlotte’s work have not reached the dizzy heights being paid for the rarer examples of Clarice Cliff and also lack the spontaneity and originality, her work is being increasingly collected and prices are on the up.

  Stan Prickett