Pete said:

Hmmm.  Interesting discussion, indeed!

I cannot imagine that the shape of the bowl would have any impact on what is happening to the dough.  The action is happening within the dough itself, and will happen if it is on a flat surface or an upright tube!  That said, the material from which the bowl is made certainly can impact how the dough rises, having to do with all that heat conductivity stuff.

Don't you imagine that the wood bowls were shaped the way they were based on the size of the tree from which they were carved?  And maybe how much of that tree the guy cutting it was willing to give up for a kitchen bowl?

The only bread bowl I remember in our family was the ceramic biscuit bowl that stayed beneath the chute of the flour bin of Grandmother's hoosier cabinet.

The size/shape of the doughbowl had more to do with the tool being used than it did with "the amount of wood that they wanted to give up,etc".
 

  The tool used for making a bowl (an adze) has a built in radius (curve) and it's really hard to make a bowl smaller than the tools curve.

 Almost all of the old bowls from Grandma's day were made of a blank (block) that was 3 1/2 " deep. By having a slant to the walls – they looked much deeper than that and some were, but generally – most were 3 1/2 or less.

  As for the insulation and its effect on the dough — the cheapest bowl you can find will work just as well as the most expensive you can find. I've made well over a thousand of them and have lost a few sales by being honest about this fact. Wood (any wood) is a natural insulator and it will reflect the small amount of heat that yeast working creates back into the dough and this increases the gasses that the yeast produce , causing the dough to rise more.

  The only difference in price is due to some are handmade – some made by machinery, a bunch are imported and a few made here. and the difference in the price is mostly hinged on quality and beauty.