Radford & Rhead
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The name of Charlotte Rhead
will need little introduction to anybody with an interest in pottery, however it
is perhaps less well known that many of her designs during her period at H.J.
Wood, marked as Bursley Ware, used the same shapes as those used for Radford
designs.
Charlotte first joined the Woods empire around 1912, working for Harry Wood at Wood & Sons, where her father Frederick was art director. Wood & Sons, based at the Trent and New Wharf potteries in Burslem, were a separate company from H.J. Wood, who were based nearby at the Alexandra pottery, although both companies were owned by members of the same family. Charlotte later moved to Burgess & Leigh, then to A.G. Richardson who produced the Crown Ducal range. By 1941, however she had parted company with Richardson's and was offered a position at H.J.Wood. Eddie Sambrook, the art director at H.J. Wood who had worked closely with Edward Radford before the war, was on military service during the war years, so it seems likely that Charlotte took over that position. The war meant that production of decorated wares was restricted to export pieces only, however this did not prevent Charlotte from designing around fifty patterns before her untimely death in 1947. A number of these designs remained in production until about 1960. |
| Although using the same blanks, the Charlotte Rhead designs all employ her trademark tube lining. Patterns are marked, for example, TL5, however the shape numbers are the same as the corresponding Radford wares. As with Radford, some of the smaller items are just marked "MADE IN ENGLAND". |
| Not surprisingly, some of the paintresses worked on both Radford and Rhead designs. Rose Platt, for example, was a Radford paintress who later became a tubeliner working on Charlotte Rhead designs. |
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References:
Collecting Rhead Pottery by Bernard Bumpus
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