AFA 20th Anniversary

20th Anniversary 150 www.afamag.com |  www.incollect.com Flower urn, S. Bell & Son (active 1882–1900), Strasburg, Va., 1882–1892. Earthenware, H, 13 1/2 inches. Colonial Williamsburg Collections, Museum Purchase (2008.900.3). Another spectacular utilitarian form associated with flowers in the exhibition is this flowerpot or urn marked with a stamp indicating it was made at the Bell Pottery while under the ownership of Samuel Bell and his sons at the end of the nineteenth century. The Bell family had created traditional earthenware and stoneware in the Valley of Virginia for generations. Majestic lion mask handles with incised manes on the sides of the piece were made from molds originally used by Solomon Bell earlier in the century. The foliate-like spots and dashes in green slip are also indicative of the Bell Pottery production. Sixteen-gallon storage jar, Daniel Seagle (1805–1867), Vale, N.C., ca. 1840. Alkaline-glazed stoneware. H. 19 inches. Colonial Williamsburg Collections, Museum Purchase (2013.900.1). Daniel Seagle, maker of this beautifully glazed and abnormally large storage jar, was a potter in the Catawba Valley of North Carolina, with family roots in Pennsylvania and Germany. Tax records reveal that Seagle began his career as an earthenware potter and shifted to alkaline or ash-glazed stoneware production before 1830. He was a master at creating the four-handled storage jar; but only a small number of extraordinarily large vessels like this one survive. His largest known piece is a twenty- gallon jar. Despite their large size, his wares are very thinly potted, unlike most storage jars of the time. Made to hold dry or wet foodstuffs, this monumental example bears a stamped “DS” on one handle and the capacity mark “16” on another. The four-handled form is closely associated with Catawba Valley stoneware and was made into the twentieth century.