Figure of a lion

This blue-glazed stoneware lion is an iconic object in the canon of American folk art and speaks to early experimentation by American potters with clay and glazes. Stamped by its maker "JOHN BELL / WAYNESBORO" on its underside, it is one of a group of six with family histories associated with members of the Bell family, known for numerous potteries in the Shenandoah Valley. Of the six, this is the only one made of stoneware rather than earthenware. Its blue glaze comes from a local recipe for "zaffree," rather than pure cobalt. The Shenandoah Valley (in southern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia) was an area with abundant and rich earthenware and stoneware clay deposits, and its pottery tradition dates to at least the mid-eighteenth century. By 1833, John Bell had established a small but successful pottery business which continued to grow as his own sons joined the shop. For the most part the pottery produced utilitarian items such as crocks, pitchers, and flowerpots. However, they quickly added ornamental wares to their repertoire, and the Bell family was well known for their glazed earthenware figures. The form of the lion was most likely responding to figural ceramic lions and poodles (this example looks part lion/part poodle) made in Staffordshire, England or the Rockingham and parian versions at the United States Pottery Company in Bennington, Vermont, and all dating roughly to the mid-nineteenth century. In the jaunty stance and naïve half-smile of the Bell lion, it exhibits a high degree of charming playfulness and whimsy, which speaks to its family history of having been made for John Bell’s daughter as a young woman.