Jeffrey S. Evans & Assoc., Inc.
Live Auction

March 8, 2025: Winter Americana - Day Four

Sat, Mar 8, 2025 09:00AM EST
  2025-03-08 09:00:00 2025-03-08 09:00:00 America/New_York Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates : March 8, 2025: Winter Americana - Day Four https://live.jeffreysevans.com/auctions/jeffrey-evans/march-8-2025-winter-americana---day-four-17237
Jeffrey S. Evans & Assoc., Inc. info@jeffreysevans.com
Lot 3017

SIGNED "SOLOMON BELL / STRASBURG / VA", SHENANDOAH VALLEY OF VIRGINIA HUNT-SCENE EARTHENWARE / REDWARE PITCHER

Estimate: $500 - $800
Starting Bid
$250

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $10
$200 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$3,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$30,000 $2,500
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000

SIGNED "SOLOMON BELL / STRASBURG / VA", SHENANDOAH VALLEY OF VIRGINIA HUNT-SCENE EARTHENWARE / REDWARE PITCHER, mottled reddish-brown manganese- and lead-glaze, molded scenes around the body with one side featuring dogs taking down a boar and the other featuring dogs attacking a stag; solid hound handle molded as part of the pitcher, with the pitcher's underside featuring the partially-legible molded signature "Solomon Bell / Strasburg / Va" and additionally signed "Bell" in script going the opposite direction. Solomon Bell (1817-1882), Strasburg, VA. 1850-1880. 7 1/4" HOA.
Literature: Comstock - The Pottery of the Shenandoah Valley Region, p. 220, fig. 5.62 and pg. 236-237, figs. 5.99 and 5.105; Rice and Stoudt - The Shenandoah Pottery, p. 173, fig. 382.
Catalogue Note: This unusual twice-signed pitcher is an exceptionally rare example of the popular molded hunt-scene pitchers associated with the Bell family. The first Americanization of the design (originally a Staffordshire product) was modeled in the early 1850's by Charles Coxon for the E. & W. Bennett Pottery Co. in Baltimore MD (see The American Ceramic Circle Journal, Vol IX for details). They were commonly produced by Bennett in Rockingham glaze, with either branch-form or hound handles. It seems the standard body and handle designs were quickly copied for local production in redware (and very rarely, stoneware) by the business-minded Solomon Bell, as multiple varieties and sizes exist. They were produced more commonly by his brother John in Waynesboro, but also by Solomon himself in Strasburg, and later by his descendants. 

The pitchers were copied using plaster molds of the original - Comstock fig. 5.99 illustrates a mold very similar to the one used to press the current pitcher, with two sides slotted together, although it lacks the third part: a base plate with a molded signature. Comstock describes the process as follows: "reverse intaglio script on the interior bottom of the mold produced a positive mirror image in relief on the actual object". See fig. 5.61a for an illustration of a closely-related molded/embossed signature on a Putti pitcher. The mark did not turn out as clear on the pitcher in this lot, which is probably what led Solomon to boldly incise it "Bell", in case there had been any doubt about who made it.

Condition

Very good condition with scattered glaze wear and a few restored/recolored flakes or shallow chips around rim and base edge, but primarily to high points of the molded decoration. Also having a short surface-only drying line below the hound handle's rump, traveling parallel to the pitcher's waist, as made.

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