Charlotte Rhead For Crown Ducal Manchu Charger or Wall Plaque C.1936

This is a Charlotte Rhead design for Crown Ducal. The charger features a tube-lined design of a Chinese dragon in green and golden copper, finished in gold and on a green ground. It has a pierced foot rim for wall hanging as a plaque or can be displayed as a charger. Signed in enamel 'C Rhead' with decorator's mark 'H' for Hannah Williams. Printed Crown Ducal mark used 1935 – 1938 and Manchu pattern number 4511. Charlotte Rhead was born into a family of artists heavily involved in pottery design and decoration. She studied at the Fenton School of Art in the Potteries, starting work at a pottery in nearby Hanley. Here she developed skills as a tube-line decorator – skills she utilised later in her career as a designer. Charlotte subsequently worked as an enameller and then tile designer before joining her farther at Wood & Sons where he had been appointed as art director. She initially oversaw the tube-liners but later worked as a designer. In 1926 she worked as a designer with Burgess and Leigh of Middleport and in the 1930s joined the firm of AG Richardson in Tunstall. Their brand name was Crown Ducal.