Charlotte Rhead was an extremely successful ceramic artist who’s colourful work during the 1920’s and 1930’s has become highly collectable. Charlotte Rhead’s Art Deco inspired pieces are distinctive in design, and she was a talented designer from a family with a strong potteries background.  With a career spanning more than four decades, and she was a contemporary of other popular Art Deco artists such as Clarice Cliff and Susie Cooper. 

Charlotte was born in Burslem in Staffordshire in 1885 into an artistic family. Her father Frederick Alfred Rhead began his career as an apprentice at Mintons where he learnt the art of Pate sur Pate ceramics decoration from Marc Louis Solon. Her mother Adolphine was a talented amateur actress and singer. Charlotte’s brother Frederick Hurten Rhead also became a well known pottery designer in the USA.

Charlotte was at the beginning of the twentieth century living in the Fenton area and she and her sister Dollie studied at the Fenton School of Art. Charlotte started work at Wardle and Co a pottery in the nearby town of Hanley in 1902 where her brother was the Art Director before he emigrated to America. Charlotte Rhead’s distinctive wares are well-known for her tube lined designs and, while Charlotte did not stay at Wardle and Co long, it gave her the opportunity to develop her skills as a tube liner.

In 1905, Charlotte found employment as an enameller at Keeling & Co of Burslem. She was next employed as a designer at tile-maker T & R Boote and then in1912 Charlotte joined Wood & Son, a firm which operated several potteries, taking charge and later working as a designer.

Charlotte is perhaps best known, though, for her association with Burgess & Leigh of Middleport, where she worked as a designer from 1926 until 1931. It was here that Charlotte produced some of her best designs. The most sought-after designs by collectors these days are from this period of her work, and they pay huge amounts for good examples. 

In the 1930s, she moved to the firm of AG Richardson in Tunstall. Their brand name was Crown Ducal, where she designed and produced many popular designs that were still in production after her death in 1947 at the relatively young age of 62 until the early 1960s. She enjoyed success in her own lifetime, and was the only female  member of the Rhead family to make an impact as a ceramic designer. Her pieces remain popular today with patterns such as Byzantine, Foxglove and Wysteria always sought after at auction.

Her lustre pieces tend to fetch the highest prices at auction with a plaque painted with an exotic bird and fruit recently sold at auction for £3100 but on the other hand her well known tube lined designs can easily be brought for under £100. So there is something for every pocket.