Antiques Trade Gazette 21
a Bumpus selection 3
ILLUSTRATED: the many faces of the Rhead family in Staffordshire as seen in the Bernard Bumpus collection sold by Halls of Shrewsbury on February 9.
1. Charlotte Rhead for Burleigh Ware pheasant and pomegranates plaque, £1450. 2. Charlotte Rhead for Burleigh Ware galleon plaque, £1000. 3. Wileman & Co, Foley Faience vase, 10in (24cm) high, £460. 4. Frederick Hurten Rhead grotesque vase, 3in (8cm) high, £160. 5. Wileman & Co, Foley Urbato vase, 14in (36cm) high, £800. 6. Wileman & Co, Foley Pastello vase designed by Frederick Rhead, 6in (15cm) high, £700. 7. Anchor Pottery vase with design by Louis Rhead, 12in (30cm) high, £170. 8. Wood & Sons pâte-sur-pâte vase by Frederick A. Rhead, c.1915, 10in (26cm) high, £310. 9. Wardle & Co vase by Harry Rhead, 6in (15cm) high, £290. 10. Brain & Co Harjian vase by Fanny Rhead, 8in (19cm) high, £440.
of the Egyptian-inspired Harjian range for E. Brain & Co, was represented by an ovoid vase sold at £440, and Harry Rhead (1881-1950) by a handful of the tubelined wares produced during his tenure at the Wardle factory. A £170 Anchor Pottery vase with an Art
Nouveau scene of a maiden in a landscape told a transatlantic Potteries story. In Collecting Rhead Pottery, this vase c.1900 and the original illustration by the successful New York graphic artist Louis Rhead (1857-1926) that had fi rst appeared in the American journal The Sun in 1894 were pictured together. As a key fi gure in the history of
8 7 6 5
American art pottery, Frederick Hurten Rhead (1880-1942) is undoubtedly the Rhead sibling with the greatest international reputation: the Homer Laughlin China Company continues to produce his Fiesta range designed in 1935. However, while prices for the pots he
made while art director of the Roseville Pottery in Zanesville, Ohio can run to six fi gures, there is little enthusiasm among US collectors for the wares made before his emigration in 1902. Bumpus found this to his cost: an exhibition titled The Rheads of Staffordshire commissioned by the Delaware Art Museum foundered when funds were not forthcoming. Demand for Frederick Hurten wares
common: only last week an example failed to bring its opening bid of £70 at Kensington online fi rm Auction Atrium. Another Crown Ducal rarity was a 13in
(33cm) plate in the Omar pattern with the motto Here with a loaf of bread, beneath the bough, a fl ask of wine, a book of verse and thou sold at £480 (estimate £150-200). According to Bernard Bumpus, this was the example shown at the British Industries Fair in February 1935.
Jeremy Lamond is hoping the sale
presages a revival in the Charlotte Rhead market but, he concedes, “it may be too early to tell”. One suspects there are prices here that might be hard to replicate elsewhere. Elsewhere in this Rhead family offering, there
was predictable enthusiasm for wares made by Wileman and Co (Foley) under the aegis of Frederick Alfred Rhead (1856-1933). As a former Minton hand who learnt his trade alongside
the pâte-sur-pâte exponent Marc-Louis Solon, he is the fi gure who connected Bumpus’s two primary interests in the ceramics world. Pieces from across the Foley range – Intarsio, Urbato and Pastello – were included in these 16 lots, but it was the Faience line that was best represented. This unusually large group of nine lots brought a clutch of multi-estimate sums, including a 10in (24cm) high vase, sgraffi to-decorated with fi sh scale designs at £460 (estimate £60-80). Fanny Rhead (1865-1931), the designer
at Halls was largely lukewarm (and most of these lots were picked up by local buyers), although the designer’s wall plate decorated with pelicans in a river landscape by Thomas Forester & Sons did bring £460 despite some restoration. In total, the Bernard Bumpus collection
of Rhead family pottery realised £33,000. Bonhams will sell ten lots of Theodore Deck pottery from the same vendor as part of their Bond Street Ceramic Design sale on March 16.
4
6
8
10
5
7
9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80