STAMPED "[BAE]CHER / [WINCHESTE]R V[A]", SHENANDOAH VALLEY OF VIRGINIA EARTHENWARE / REDWARE COVERED SUGAR BOWL, mottled lead and manganese glazes over a slip wash, slightly compressed globular bowl with extruded rounded loop-style handles and collared rim, raised on a pronounced foot, each side with sprigged decoration comprising two flower heads and two leaves. Original cover with stepped edge, having an applied bird above a large seed pod or flower. Partially stamped under the base. Anthony Weis Bacher/Baecher (1824-1889), Winchester, VA. Circa 1885. 5 1/4" HOA, 4" D rim, 3 1/4" D foot.
Literature: Parallels Wiltshire - Folk Pottery of the Shenandoah Valley, p. 108, pl. 53; stamp as Comstock - Pottery of the Shenandoah Valley Region, p. 164, fig. 4.240.
Catalogue Note: The current sugar bowl represents a classic and iconic Shenandoah Valley folk art form. Only a handful of examples are known exhibiting both the bird and the sprigged decorations. An example lacking the sprigged decoration, but otherwise identical from the Henry Ford Museum is illustrated by Wiltshire (see above literature). Another example without the decoration is in the Winterthur Museum collection.

Excellent as-found condition, having no restoration or repairs, bowl with flake to rim and bird with minor loss to tip of beak, having some scattered glaze loss to raised areas, handles, and rim.