Exceedingly Rare and Important Slip-Decorated Redware Bowl with Distinctive Tulip Decoration, attributed to Peter Bell, Hagerstown, MD, circa 1815, finely-thrown bowl with rounded foot and tooled, Hagerstown-style rim. Decorated around the edge of the interior with straight and wavy lines of manganese slip, followed by ten closely spaced lines of manganese slip. Interior decorated in slip-trailed manganese with an extremely rare group of five, Bell-style tulips extending from a leafy stem. Surface lead-glazed over a bright orange ground. This bowl is possibly the earliest example of pottery decorated with the Bells' prolific tulip decoration, and can be viewed as a predecessor of later designs used by his descendants. Variants of this motif would be used for several decades by Peter Bell's sons, John, Samuel, and Solomon, as well as his grandchildren. For an example of John Bell pottery using a variation of this design, see H.E. Comstock's The Pottery of the Shenandoah Valley Region, p. 116, fig. 4.96. For an example of similarly-decorated Samuel Bell stoneware, see Comstock, p. 267, fig. 5.19. A very important example, which documents the early decorative methods of the patriarch of the Bell family. 1 3/4" shallow rim chip and other shallow, much smaller rim chips. Glaze remarkably well intact with a tiny flake to interior. H 2 3/4" ; Diameter 12".
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