Glazed red earthenware seated dog with bottle in basket, John Bell (1800-1880) Waynesboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, 1840-1870

Helen Janssen Wetzel, Spring Township, Pennsylvania
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, "Property from the Collection of the Late Helen Janssen Wetzel Volume I: Important English and Continental Furniture and Related Decorative Arts," September 30, 1980, lot 1756

American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 155, fig. 120

Old loss to the tip of the tail and the handles of the basket, otherwise appears to be in very good condition. Female dog.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The Bell family produced four generations of influential and multitalented potters whose working careers spanned most of the nineteenth century. They established extensive operations and consumer markets in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Peter Bell (1775-1847), active in Hagerstown, Maryland, and Winchester, Virginia, after 1800, produced a variety of redware forms and was followed by his sons John and Samuel, who established potteries during the 1830s in Pennsylvania and Virginia; they were followed, in turn, by several of their children later in the century. While sculpted, glazed redware animal figures portrayed in imaginary activities and whimsical stances were likely produced by a number of traditional folk potters working in both regions, a group of these figures exhibit particular characteristics in their fabrication and decoration or have associated histories connecting them to the Bell productions. Within this group, however, few examples bear signatures. Thus, firm attributions differentiating their works remain difficult to establish, given the longevity of the Bells' operations, the consistency in techniques and use of materials known to have been employed by them at their respective potteries, and the existence of competing potteries in both regions that may have patterned products after theirs. Most of these animal figures are hollow, consisting of a thick-walled, hand-formed tube of clay bent roughly to shape, with clay additions forming the head, legs, and other features. Details depicting facial features, fur, paws, and other surface elements are scratched or drawn in the wet clay. Fur textures seen on those examples attributed to the Bells appear to have been modeled using a thin, pointed stick, leaving narrow, closely spaced, shallow broken "tubes" forming the pelt of the animal. The bases onto which the completed figures were attached were cut or stamped from a sheet of similar clay and decorated with pointed oval or floral stamps.¹Several of these stamped designs closely echo patterns produced by leather-stamping tools, such as those used by a harness maker or bookbinder. The potter's placement of the stamps indicates that they were applied before the bases were attached to the figures. Once the decoration was complete on both elements, the pieces were joined together in their plastic state with wet slip clay and allowed to dry prior to glazing and firing. While letters from the Bells document that John sent clay, glaze materials, and finished works from Pennsylvania to Samuel in Virginia during the 1840s, the clay in the figure attributed to Samuel or Solomon is slightly lighter in color and coarser in particulate, similar to other clays found in the Shenandoah Valley. The overall green and yellow slip treatment on this example is also similar in character and color to the slip decoration found on other wares from the Strasburg pottery. -J.L.L.

¹ The pointed oval stamp and the repeated, closely spaced round stamp designs seen on both these figures are among the characteristics thought to help distinguish the work of the Bells from that of other potters producing these figures. A stamp-decorated vase signed "S. Bell and Son, Strasburg" (collection Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Mich.) bears similar stamped decoration and serves as one of the prime examples toward these attributions.