BELL FAMILY, STRASBURG, SHENANDOAH VALLEY OF VIRGINIA STONEWARE DOG / SPANIEL, dark brown salt-glazed, full-bodied left-facing form, molded after a corresponding English Staffordshire spaniel of the same period, sitting with tail around hind legs, wearing a collar with locket and a chain, having pierced features including eyes, nostrils, and the chain, sat on an asymmetrical oval base. Fourth quarter 19th century. 9 1/2" HOA, 7 1/4" LOA.
Literature: Rice/Stoudt - The Shenandoah Pottery, p. 134, figs. 158, 159, and 160.
Catalogue Note: This stoneware dog very closely parallels the dog catalogued as No. 158 in Rice & Stoudt, with the exception that the book dog is described as a "penny bank". This solid closed-base version was instead likely a doorstop, indicated by its heavy size and the excessive wear pattern to the rear shoulder. The brown salt glaze, very dark and metallic in spots, bears a not-at-all coincidental resemblance to sewer tile/drain tile of the era. Comstock notes in The Pottery of the Shenandoah Valley Region on p. 239 in describing the S. Bell & Son pottery, that by the late 19th century "drain tile sales" and "drain construction for the new large kiln at the Strasburg Steam Pottery" became "their main source[s] of income". Comparatively fewer products of this "late" era of Strasburg Bell production are known, but they include a convincingly related spaniel sold as Lot 1005 in our 9/23/2023 sale as part of the H. Marshall Goodman collection, and one from the collection of the late John and Lil Palmer, Purcellville, VA, sold as Lot 58 in our 4/05/2014 sale. Examples like these may represent a last gasp of the proud production of molded animals/spaniels for which the Strasburg Bells were known. It is interesting to consider its continuation, an anachronism by this point, into the more utilitarian and barebones era of Bell stoneware production in Strasburg and the efforts of Richard Franklin "Polk", Charles Forrest, and Turner Ashby to make ends meet after being "left in charge of a business that was no longer very profitable", as Comstock puts it.

Excellent condition with a few flakes around base edge and spots of shallow glaze loss/exfoliation primarily around the rear shoulder, and some along the dog's chain. Having some old paint splatters and remnants of an old glued felt/fabric covering to underside, which obscures some now illegible grease pencil markings.