Frederick Hurten Rhead

Frederick Hurten Rhead, the designer of Fiesta Ware, was born in Staffordshire England to a family of artistically talented potters. He learned the ceramic trade in the potteries of Stoke-On-Trent. He served a five-year apprenticeship under his father, Frederick Alfred Rhead in the Brownsfield Pottery in Burslem and took classes at the Wedgewood Institute. He emigrated to the United States in 1902 and spent the next four decades in a variety of pottery positions including instructor at a tuberculosis sanitarium in California, his own pottery, the Rhead Pottery of California, and Roseville and Weller Potteries, both in Ohio. His last position was that of Art Director at Homer Laughlin China Company from 1927 until his death from cancer in 1942.

Rhead was at the height of his career when he joined Homer Laughlin. As an active member of the American Ceramic Society, he was influential on a national level regarding mass-produced dinnerware design. He conceived and designed the bestselling dinnerware, Fiesta Ware, for Homer Laughlin in 1936. Featuring 42 new shapes and designs in five bright colors, the line debuted in January of that year at the Pottery and Glass Exhibition in Pittsburgh. It was an instant success. Rhead also designed Homer Laughlin’s popular Virginia Rose and Harlequin dinnerware.

Rhead was not only a successful commercial potter but he was a renowned art potter as well. His art pottery is highly coveted by art collectors and is exhibited in major museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. In October of 2012, a large four tile panel, which he created in 1910 for a friend, sold for $637,500; a then-record price for any American work of ceramics at auction. [SMW]

For more information on Frederick H. Rhead, see:

The Hot Bid. https://thehotbid.com/2018/01/11/record-a-unique-tile-panel-by-ceramics-wizard-frederick-hurten-rhead-commands-637500-at-rago/ Accessed 4-21-20.

Dale, Sharon. Frederick Hurten Rhead: An English Potter in America, 1986.

Photos above from the archives of the Museum of Ceramics.

Photos below (left to right): Fiesta Ware serving dish from the MoC collection, in original colors (plus turqoise, which was introduced in 1937). Art pottery by Rhead. Virginia Rose dinner plate, Harlequin ball pitcher.