Henry Grady was born in 1812 in Prussia and immigrated to this country at the age of 24, arriving at the port of Baltimore on June 25, 1835. By 1843, he had relocated to Shanksville where he worked as a potter in a house attached to his shop. The pottery produced a large amount of utilitarian redware, several unique redware items. Among these were elaborate inkstands, figural animals and double-walled sugar bowls such as the one shown here. Double-walled pots with "cutwork" exterior were decorated by incising designs into the wet clay, some are signed and dated on the bottom.

A work by the same hand was on loan to the Somorset Historical Center, and is double walled with similar cut work, and a nearly identical zig-zag brim.