Charlotte Rhead
Charlotte Rhead (born 1885) came from a distinguished design background. Frederick her father was a pottery designer and her paternal grandfather had started the Fenton School for 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.
She first worked at T & R Boote a tile company in Burslem. In 1913 she joined Wood and Sons, then in 1926 went to Burgess and Leigh where she trained a small team of tube-liners. Between 1931 and 1943, her most prolific period, she worked at A G Richardson in Cobridge, then in 1943 returned to Wood and Sons as Art Director. She died in 1947.
Bibliography
Bumpas, Bernard. Charlotte Rhead, Potter and Designer, Kevin Francis, 1988.
Bumpas, Bernard. Pottery Designed by Charlotte Rhead, The Antique Collector, January 1983.
Bumpas, Bernard. Tube Line Variations, The Antique Collector, December 1985.
Bumpas, Bernard. Rhead Artists and Potters 1870-1950 - catalogue of exhibition at the Geffrye Museum, 1986.
Bumpas, Bernard. Cheerful Charlotte Rhead, The Antique Dealer and Collector's Guide, August 1988.
Places to visit
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Bethesda Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent
Moorcroft Pottery, Sandbach Road, Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent (for tube lined ware).
