Frederick Hurten Rhead
Encyclopedia
Frederick Hurten Rhead was a native of England who worked as a potter
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

 in the United States for most of his career. In addition to teaching pottery techniques, Rhead was highly influential in both studio and commercial pottery. He worked for the Roseville Pottery
Roseville pottery
The Roseville Pottery Company was an American pottery manufacturer in the 19th and 20th centuries. Though originally simple household pieces, the design of the pottery was popular with the American Arts and Crafts movement and pieces are now sought after by collectors.-History:The company was...

, established his own Rhead Pottery (1913–1917), and in 1935 designed the highly successful Fiesta ware for Homer Laughlin China Company
Homer Laughlin China Company
The Homer Laughlin China Company is an American pottery company based in Newell, West Virginia, which is best known for producing the Fiesta line of dinnerware.-History:...

.

Early life

Rhead was born in Hanley, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, into a family of potters. His father Frederick Alfred Rhead
Frederick Alfred Rhead
Frederick Alfred Rhead was a potter working in North Staffordshire, England. He is not to be confused with his son Frederick Hurten Rhead who was also a potter, and who worked mainly in the USA. His other children included the pottery designer Charlotte Rhead.Rhead's father, G.W...

 began his career as an apprentice at Mintons Ltd, where he learned to be a pâte-sur-pâte
Pâte-sur-pâte
Pâte-sur-pâte is a method of porcelain decoration in which a relief design is created on an unfired, unglazed body by applying successive layers of white slip with a brush...

artist. He went on to work for a number of other potteries, including a business of his own which failed. Young Frederick's mother Adolphine (née Hurten) also came from an artistic family. Frederick Hurten's siblings included Charlotte Rhead
Charlotte Rhead
Charlotte Rhead was an English ceramics designer active in the 1920s and the 1930s in the Potteries area of Staffordshire.Charlotte Rhead was born into an artistic family...

, a talented designer who remained in England; and Harry Rhead, who followed his brother to work in the United States.

Education and early career

Rhead was educated in the Potteries District of Staffordshire, where he lived until he emigrated to the USA. At that time the conurbation consisted of separate towns, which have since united as the city of Stoke-on-Trent. Rhead went to school in Hanley. He served an apprenticeship in Burslem
Burslem
The town of Burslem, known as the Mother Town, is one of the six towns that amalgamated to form the current city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England.-Topography:...

 under his father and attended classes at the Wedgwood Institute
Wedgwood Institute
The Wedgwood Institute is a large red-brick building that stands in Queen Street, in the town of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England...

 in the same town.
After completing his education, Rhead taught art in Longton
Longton, Staffordshire
Longton is a southern district of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and is known locally as the "Neck End" of the city. Longton is one of the six towns of "the Potteries" which formed the City of Stoke-on-Trent in 1925.-History:...

. He became art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....

 of a pottery called Wardle and Co. in Hanley. His sister Charlotte also joined the firm.

Career in USA

In 1902 Frederick Hurten Rhead emigrated to the USA. He was not the first member of his family to move there, as his uncle Louis Rhead
Louis Rhead
Louis John Rhead was an English-born American artist, illustrator, author and angler who was born in Etruria, Staffordshire, England. He emigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-four.-Early life:...

 (1858-1926) had already become established as a successful graphic designer
Graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...

 in New York.

Emigrants from Stoke-on-Trent, where ceramics was the dominant industry, tended to settle in such places as Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...

, or, as in Frederick Rhead's case, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

. Both areas had significant pottery industries to exploit the clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

 deposits. Rhead's first USA position was managing a small art pottery at Tiltonville, Ohio, which changed its name from Vance Faience to Avon Faience in 1902. Pieces from Rhead's time at this pottery still come on the market, but they are relatively rare. Production at Tiltonville was being transferred to nearby Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, and in 1904, Rhead left to work as a designer for the Weller Pottery
Weller pottery
Weller Pottery was founded by Samuel Weller in Fultonham, Ohio, United States in 1872. The original pottery consisted of a small cabin and one kiln. The initial products produced by Weller included flower pots, crocks, bowls, and vases....

 in Zanesville, Ohio
Zanesville, Ohio
Zanesville is a city in and the county seat of Muskingum County, Ohio, United States. The population was 25,586 at the 2000 census.Zanesville was named after Ebenezer Zane, who had constructed Zane's Trace, a pioneer road through present-day Ohio...

, but he did not stay there long. In 1904 Rhead became art director at the Roseville Pottery
Roseville pottery
The Roseville Pottery Company was an American pottery manufacturer in the 19th and 20th centuries. Though originally simple household pieces, the design of the pottery was popular with the American Arts and Crafts movement and pieces are now sought after by collectors.-History:The company was...

 which was also in Zanesville. Roseville was a large pottery which produced some art pottery as well as more utilitarian lines. In 1908 the company reduced the amount of handcrafting in its production, and
the following year Rhead moved to University City, Missouri
University City, Missouri
University City is an inner-ring suburb in St. Louis County, Missouri. The population was 35,371 in 2010 census. The city was shaped by Washington University in St. Louis, whose campus abuts the city to the southeast....

, although his brother Harry stayed on at Roseville.
Rhead, along with American potter Adelaïde Alsop Robineau
Adelaide Alsop Robineau
Adelaïde Alsop Robineau was an American painter, potter and ceramist.As a young woman Adelaïde became interested in the popular pursuit of china painting. She married Samuel E. Robineau of France in 1899, and in that year the couple launched Keramic Studio, a pioneering periodical for ceramic...

 and French potter Taxile Doat
Taxile Doat
Taxile Doat was a French potter who is primarily known for his experimentation with high-fired porcelain and stoneware using the pâte-sur-pâte technique. His book on these techniques Grand Feu Ceramics was published in 1905 and helped spread his discoveries internationally...

, was recruited by Edward Gardner Lewis
Edward Gardner Lewis
Edward Gardner Lewis was a flamboyant and controversial promoter, magazine publisher, political activist, and founder of two utopian colonies -- University City, Missouri, and Atascadero, California....

, the founder of University City, to teach at the People's University there. This institution specialised in what is now called distance learning and was then usually called correspondence school. Rhead created a pottery correspondence course, although some pottery students also resided at the Art Academy. Apart from teaching, Rhead produced some vases and tiles, sometimes working with his wife Agnes. After Lewis became bankrupt in 1911, he ceased supporting the pottery studio. Taxile Doat continued pottery production at University City for a few years, but the Rheads moved to California.

Rhead's first California position was in Marin County at the Arequipa tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...

. The director had decided to offer pottery classes to the patients. The Arequipa Pottery
Arequipa Pottery
The Arequipa Pottery was an Arts and Crafts pottery near Fairfax, Marin County, California, situated at the Arequipa Sanatorium. It was active from 1911 to about 1918....

, which opened in 1911, was a sideline for the sanatorium, but Rhead was ambitious in his plans. He sourced suitable clays, experimented with glazes
Ceramic glaze
Glaze is a layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fired to fuse to a ceramic object to color, decorate, strengthen or waterproof it.-Use:...

 and taught decorative techniques such as tubelining
Tubelining
Tubelining is a technique of ceramic decoration. It involves squeezing a thin line of clay body through a nozzle onto the ware being decorated. An alternative term is "slip trailing"....

 (a technique also associated with his sister Charlotte). Rhead's methods were not regarded by the management as sufficiently businesslike. In 1913 he was replaced at the Arequipa Pottery by Albert Solon, another potter from Staffordshire, who reduced production costs.

Rhead remained in California, starting his own studio pottery in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...

 in late 1913 or early 1914. Operating until 1917, the Rhead Pottery produced ware which is now highly valued. A Rhead vase currently holds the record as the most expensive American art pottery at auction. In the later part of his career, however, Rhead did more work in larger-scale, more commercial production.

Rhead returned to Zanesville, where he worked for American Encaustic Tiling Company. The words encaustic tile
Encaustic tile
Encaustic tiles are ceramic tiles in which the pattern or figure on the surface is not a product of the glaze but of different colors of clay. They are usually of two colors but a tile may be composed of as many as six. The pattern is inlaid into the body of the tile, so that the design remains as...

refer to the 19th-century revival of a medieval technique for the production of floor tiles. During Rhead's time, the company combined production of some art tiles (for fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...

s, etc.) with large-scale production of more utilitarian ware. American Encaustic was reputed at one time to operate the largest tileworks in the world. It was forced to close in the 1930s, a victim of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

.

Fiesta ware

In 1927 Rhead was hired as art director of the Homer Laughlin China Company
Homer Laughlin China Company
The Homer Laughlin China Company is an American pottery company based in Newell, West Virginia, which is best known for producing the Fiesta line of dinnerware.-History:...

 in Newell, West Virginia
Newell, West Virginia
Newell is a census-designated place in Hancock County, West Virginia, along the Ohio River. It is part of the Weirton–Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area. Newell is the northernmost settlement in the state of West Virginia. The population was 1,376 at the 2010...

. He continued in the position until his death in 1942.

In the 1930s, Rhead conceived and designed a line of glazed dinnerware called Fiesta. It was based on a spherical theme in Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

 style. The pottery came in five colors. The concept was that the customer could acquire pieces of different colors to mix and match according to taste. Introduced to the public in January 1936, the line was an immediate success. The idea of mixed solid colors on dinnerware was not new but Rhead's version was more successful. Such a concept had previously been marketed by two California potteries
California pottery
California pottery is pottery produced in the northern and southern portions of the U.S. state of California. Production includes brick, sewer pipe, architectural terra cotta, tile, garden ware, tableware, kitchenware, art ware, figurines, giftware, and ceramics for industrial use...

, the Catalina Pottery of Santa Catalina Island
Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is long and across at its greatest width. The island is located about south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is...

 in the early 1930s and the Bauer Pottery
Bauer Pottery
Bauer Pottery, strictly speaking J.A. Bauer Pottery, was an American pottery founded in Paducah, Kentucky, however operating for most of its life in Los Angeles, California.-History:In 1885, J. A...

.

The Homer Laughlin Company expanded the line with new shapes, and eventually new glaze colors as well. It became the best-selling line of dinnerware in the USA. Rhead designed a similar line called "Harlequin", which was sold in Woolworth's, an important customer of Homer Laughlin.

Frederick Hurten Rhead died in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in November 1942 from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

.

Legacy and honors

Rhead was active in two different fields: studio pottery and industrial ceramics, where there was sometimes less scope for artistic originality. His reputation as a studio potter is very high, as evidenced by sale prices.

The mass-produced Fiesta designs may be his most important achievement, as the line has remained in production since 1936, although not continuously. After Rhead's death, the production of "Fiesta" ran into problems related to war-time conditions. The United States Government took control of all available uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...

 to develop the atomic bomb. An oxide
Oxide
An oxide is a chemical compound that contains at least one oxygen atom in its chemical formula. Metal oxides typically contain an anion of oxygen in the oxidation state of −2....

 of uranium was necessary to produce the vibrant orange-red glaze of Fiesta. Without that key color, and with the severe reduction in variety of open-stock items available, the appeal of the line suffered. Consumer interest in, and sales of, the line did remain strong for some time. Despite the introduction of a new palette of glaze colors, sales progressively declined over the following 27 years until the entire line was discontinued in January 1973.

After an absence of 13 years, the line was revived with an altered clay body and glaze composition. This second incarnation of Fiesta dinnerware was first marketed in early 1986 to capitalize on the 50th anniversary of the original line's introduction. In addition, popular taste was embracing vintage design.

Some vintage Fiesta casting molds designed by Rhead were used in production of the new ware. Most shapes had to be slightly altered, or completely redesigned to meet the requirements of the new materials. The new Fiesta also testifies to the soundness of Rhead's original concept and basic shape-styling.

Annotated References

  • Bumpus, Bernard Collecting Rhead Pottery: Charlotte, Frederick, Frederick Hurten, 1999
  • Bumpus, Bernard Rhead Artists and Potters 1870-1950 - catalogue of exhibition at the Geffrye Museum, 1986.


Bernard Bumpus (1921-2004) was the leading authority on the Rhead family, and knew a great deal about Frederick Hurten Rhead's background in England. In 1986 Bumpus curated an exhibition at the Geffrye Museum
Geffrye Museum
Founded in 1914, the Geffrye Museum is a museum specialising in the history of the English domestic interior. Named after Sir Robert Geffrye, former Lord Mayor of London and Master of the Ironmongers' Company, it is located on Kingsland Road in London...

, London, called Rhead Artists and Potters. It toured other museums including the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free.One of the four local authority museums in the City, the other three being Gladstone Pottery Museum, Ford Green Hall and Etruria Industrial Museum, The Potteries Museum & Art...

 in Stoke-on-Trent. Bumpus hoped to take a version of the exhibition to the USA, but, despite American interest in the Rhead family, he was not able to obtain the necessary funding.
  • Dale, Sharon Frederick Hurten Rhead: an English Potter in America, 1986, Erie Art Museum
    Erie Art Museum
    Erie Art Museum is an art museum in Erie, Pennsylvania with a collection of over 7,000 objects, including American ceramics, Tibetan paintings, Indian bronzes, contemporary baskets, and many other categories...


A detailed study with good illustrations. It was published in connection with an exhibition held in 1986. It is better on Rhead's American career than his English background.

External links

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