F H Barker, Rhead & Co Ltd

Barker, Rhead & Co Ltd

Hanley

1908

1910

Earthenware tile manufacturer at the Atlas Tile Works, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, England.

Frederick Alfred Rhead was a freelance consulting designer in the North Staffordshire pottery industry.
In June 1908 he became a partner with F. H. Barker in a tile manufacturing business, raising £3,000 share capital.
During 1908 and 1909 the Pottery Gazette gave notice of a number of debentures secured by "F. H. Barker, Rhead & Co. Ltd (potters, Hanley & and Manchester)" to raise further capital.
The business was not a commercial success - it closed in 1910 and bankrupted Rhead.

F. H. Barker, Rhead, & Co., Ltd. - Registered capital, £3,000 in £1 shares. Objects, to take over the business of a pottery manufacturer carried on by F. H. Barker, at Vine-st., Hanley, and to carry on the same and the business of manufacturers of and dealers in bricks, tiles, pipes, earthenware, terra-cotta, and ceramic ware of all kinds.

The subscribers are : - Messrs. F. H. Barker, F. A. Rhead, A. E. Piggott, the Rev. D. Varcoe, Mrs. F. Varcoe, and Messrs. A. E. and H. Baguley.

"A surviving Barker, Rhead catalogue suggests that the standard products of the firm had printed decorations. Majolica and tube-lined tiles were also produced, and the only productions of the company which have so far been positively identified are tubes. These are mounded in oak frames stamped Barker, Rhead on their back, suggesting the company sold them as ornaments - a continuation of the practice which Frederick had started a few years earlier. As before, these tubed tiles must have been decorated by Charlotte or Dollie Rhead."

"Amongst the illustrations in the Barker, Rhead catalogue is a printed tile depicting a galleon under sale. The same vessel appears again on one of the frame tube-lined Baker, Rhead tiles and a larger tubed version, although unmarked can presumably also be attributed to the company."

Collecting Charlotte Rhead - Francis Joseph Publications

Page from a Barker, Rhead catalogue of printed designs, c. 1909
A tube-lined version of the galleon was also made

Tile with tube-lined decoration by Charlotte Rhead.
Perhaps a product of the Barker, Rhead company