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About Susan Scott
I am often asked how I can research something I don’t collect. I have collected and researched 20th century English china for twenty years. I come from a family of historians and archivists. After getting my MBA in 1980, I went to work at York University for the Dean of Arts and later for the Liaison Office. Eleven years ago, I quit and started to spend my time in libraries doing research and in 1992 I wrote my first article about attending Susie Cooper’s 90th birthday party in London. A couple of years later I spoke to Linda Eberle on the telephone. She was the ultimate collector but loathed doing research. I liked the challenge of finding out about something that appeared to leave no trace. Since I couldn’t leave my family to spend all my time in Stoke-on-Trent, chintz was perfect. I found most of my information from trade catalogues here in North America. The first edition of the Charlton© catalogue was the result of our combined talents.
As you may know the first edition sold out in three weeks and was reprinted. The second edition was launched at the Orlando Chintz Convention in April 1997 and sold out by October 1998. Linda has moved on to other things and I had intended to do the same. Charlton’s asked me to reconsider and do a third edition. This summer I found enough interesting new material – including eight James Kent catalogue pages with shape names! – to convince me that a third edition was more than justified. I am at work on the book at the moment and I would appreciate any suggestions as to new patterns and new shapes. Please remember, however, that if you have a very rare piece of chintz and you have never seen the pattern before this does not make a good candidate for the book. A large book with hundreds of obscure patterns would not be easy to carry around at flea markets and antique malls – this book is above all a collector’s guide.
Anyone with research questions or wishing to contribute to the future editions of The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Chintz© please contact me:
Susan Scott
882 Queen Street West
Toronto, Ontario M6J 1G3
Tel: (416) 657-8278 Fax: (416) 658-4675 Email: SusanScottCA@aol.com