This elegant pair of Art Deco design wall pockets is by ceramics designer Charlotte Rhead (b. 1885 - d. 1947) for the Bursley Ware series by English pottery Bursley Ltd.
The softly geometric and ridged rims in the forms are cleanly sophisticated and classically Art Deco. The decor of both pieces are polka-dots which have been applied with Rhead's characteristic tube-lined technique and add a lightly tactile dimension. (Tube-lining: Tube-lining is a decorating technique where soft clay is piped from a bag via a fine tube onto the body.) It should be noted that the painted decor is slightly different; the decor of the wall pocket which carries the additionally scored bands to the left and bottom corner is painted with deep gold and the polka-dots of the other piece is painted with a softer Chocolate brown.
CONDITION
Excellent. No chips, cracks or repairs. There is natural and mild crazing all over the body of each piece as well as light use-wear on the interior that is commensurate with age. The back of each wall pocket is stamped with 'Bursley.Ware, Charlotte Rhead, England'. The back of the bronze gilded piece is additionally inscribed with the number '8' and the brown polka-dotted piece is inscribed with the number '760'.
MEASUREMENTS
Height/depth: c. 5.2" / 13.3 cm tall (from rim to base) x c. 6.9" / 17.5 cm wide (across widest point). Rim measurements: c. 5.5" / 14 cm x c. 1.4" / 3.5 cm. Weight: c. 0.7 kg / 701 g
NOTES
Wall pockets will be securely packaged and shipping will be insured.
Shipping will be combined for multiple items.
A BIT OF HISTORY
Charlotte Rhead (b. 1885 - d. 1947) was an English ceramics designer active in the 1920s and the 1930s in the Potteries area of Staffordshire. Rhead came from an artistic family and from the beginning of the 20th century, Charlotte began working for Wardle & Co. a pottery in the nearby town of Hanley. Though she did not stay long, it gave her the opportunity to learn the skill of tube-lining, which became a technique that would become characteristic to her career as a designer.
She secured her first engagement as a designer in the early 1900s at T&R Boote before joining her father at Wood & Sons. Rhead is well known for her association with Burgess & Leigh, where she was a designer from 1926 to 1931 and also her work at Crown Ducal from around the 1930s.