Exceptional Shenandoah Valley Multi-Glazed Redware Pitcher and Bowl Set, attributed to S. Bell & Sons, Strasburg, VA, circa 1890, wheel-thrown bowl with footed base, applied soap dish with coggled edge, and molded foliate handles, the reverse with applied "fiddlehead" scrollwork. Hand-modeled spheres of clay serve as decorative embellishments flanking the scrollwork and abutting the handles. Surface decorated with streaks of green copper and reddish-brown manganese glazes over a yellow clay ground and covered in a clear lead glaze. The original pitcher to this set includes heavily-splashed copper and manganese glazes. Its molded form, likely copied from an ironstone example, includes a footed base, spurred handle, and raised bow motif on reverse. The molded pitcher form, molded handles on the bowl, as well as the slipless yellow clay used to create both, indicate this pitcher and bowl set was made at the S. Bell & Sons Pottery in Strasburg, Virginia. It survives in the best condition of any set we have seen, appearing to be almost unused and retaining a brilliantly-glazed surface with strong luster. Examples in this high-grade condition are considered very rare. Provenance: A fresh-to-the-market example, purchased by the consignor's father during the second quarter of the 20th century. Bowl in excellent overall condition with a smalled chipped section to soapdish, a chipped section to scrollwork visible on reverse, a minor base chip, and a few in-the-firing flakes to glaze on bottom edge. Pitcher in excellent, essentially as-made condition, with minor base wear and a glazed-over, in-the-making wrinkle in clay, visible on exterior of spout only. H (of pitcher) 11 1/4" ; Diameter (of bowl) 17 1/2".
