John Bell was born in Hagerstown, Maryland on April 20, 1800, and was the eldest child or Peter and Mary Ziegler Bell. He was trained by his father and influenced by other immigrant potters in Hagerstown. He worked from his father's shop until the family moved to Winchester, Virginia in 1824. He moved to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania between 1826 and 1828, in 1833 he moved to Waynsboro, Pennsylvania, where he established his own pottery.

This coffee pot is similar in form to those seen in stoneware examples also made at the Waynsboro shop. For a similar example see Comstock, p.127, fig.4.133.