'Seed Poppy' plate: C.64-2023

Titles

'Seed Poppy' plate

Maker(s)

Factory: Wood, H. J.
Designer: Rhead, Charlotte

Entities

• Plate

Categories

• Earthenware
• Art Pottery

Description

Earthenware plate, tube-lined and painted with deep blue, purple, red, pink and green glazes.

Octagonal plate, the top covered with a stylised design on a deep blue ground: a central pink and red flower surrounded by green leaves, the flower filled with purple seeds which also proliferate amongst the leaves. The edge of the rim and the underside clear glazed.

Notes

History note: Lent by Rita Smythe, 2018

Legal notes

Bequeathed by Ian and Rita Smythe, 2023

Place(s) associated

• Burslem ⪼ Staffordshire

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (2023) by Smythe, Ian and Rita

Dating

1920 CE - Circa 1940 CE

Note

Charlotte Rhead (1885-1947) came from a family of potters who over several generations built a reputation for tube-lined and pâte-sur-pâte decoration. She trained at Fenton School of Art and worked at a succession of potteries as a decorator. She became particularly known for tube-lined designs and, later, innovative glazes. From 1912-1926 she worked for her father, Frederick, who was art director at Wood & Sons, and at their subsidiaries Bursley Ltd and the Ellgreave Pottery Co. Later she joined Burgess & Leigh, and then A.G.Richardson & Co., though may also have continued to designs for Wood/Bursley (see Bumpus, 2014). She returned to H J Wood in 1942, remaining there until she died.

Charlotte Rhead’s designs for H J Wood were marketed under the ‘Bursley Ware’ label. ‘Poppy Seed’ is recorded as pattern no. 28.

School or Style

Art Deco