Has the sugar bowl always belonged to Esmé?

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

At some point in the books, does any character claim that the sugar bowl belonged to Esme, or does she just say that Beatrice stole her sugar bowl? I mean, is it possible that Esme stole someone's sugar bowl and then Beatrice stole it from her? Or the sugar bowl originally belonged to Esme?

[Dante]

I would describe the case as very much unclear. The closest we get to something that looks like an acknowledgement of her ownership is from this lengthy and fairly ambiguous passage in TPP (pp. 220-221):

"Then you know all about the sugar bowl," Esmé said, "and what's inside. You know how important that thing was, and how many lives were lost in the quest to find it. You know how difficult it was to find a container that could hold it safely, securely, and attractively. You know what it means to the Baudelaires and what it means to the Snickets." She took one sandaled step closer to Dewey, and stretched out one silver fingernail--the one shaped like an S--until it was almost poking him in the eye. "And you know," she said in a terrible voice, "that it is mine."
"Not anymore," Dewey said.
"Beatrice stole it from me!" Esmé cried.
"There are worse things," Dewey said, "than theft."

I think Dewey's responses here, especially the second one, are less compatible with an "Esmé stole it first" interpretation than with an "Esmé legitimately owned it" one. As always, there is the ever-present confusion between the bowl and the contents; and which Esmé is most attached to and would be most justified in being attached to.

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

Yes thanks. Dewey did not deny that the sugar bowl came from Esme. Her emphasis on finding a safe and beautiful container seems to indicate that at least the act of putting whatever was in the sugar bowl was from Esmé.

[Dante]

I would suggest that "attractively" is Esmés interpretation of the end result, and particularly, of a sugar bowl she owned and would presumably not have owned if it was not in her view attractive, in. It doesn't necessarily suggest it was a criterion.