Preview
Scrivener
Jacob Strickler (1770-1842)
Decorator
Jacob Strickler (1770-1842)
Accession Number
PAG2001.030
Creation Date
1814
Description
Vorschrift with red, blue, and yellow fraktur lettering at top, small floral designs along top.
Dimensions in Inches
7 1/2 x 13
Dimensions in Centimeters
19 x 33
Materials
Watercolor and ink on laid paper
Technique
Drawn, Hand colored, Hand lettered
Associated Places
Shenandoah County, Virginia
Category
Writing exercise document (Vorschrift)
Motifs
stars, flowers, floral
Associated Names
Isaac Sauer
Rights
Please contact the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College for permissions which fall outside of educational fair use.
Source
Ursinus College Library Special Collections and the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art
Provenance
Pennsylvania Folklife Society
Script/Text
Fraktur lettering, German script, English cursive
Language
German, English
Transcription
Dreÿ schöne dinge sind die beÿde/Gott und den mens[c]hen wohlgefallen, Wenn brüder eines sind, und die nachbarn/sich lieb haben, und mann und weib sich miteinander wohl begehen/Spr[ichworte]25 C.v.1.2
Vor Isaac Sauer Wohnhaft in Schenedoh Cauntÿ Virginien den 31st[en]/mertz 1814
Verso: Jacob. M. Bradley/Jacob. M. Bradley
Translation
Three beautiful things are these to both God and man well-pleasing: when brothers are as one, and neighbors have love for one another, and man and wife go along well with each other. Proverbs 25 C[hapter]: v[erse] 1-2.
For Isaac Sauer living in Shenandoah County, Virginia the 31 of March 1814.
Verso: Jacob. M. Bradley/Jacob. M. Bradley
Comment
The artist of this piece is the subject of some dispute. In 1988, an exhibit catalog of items included in “Dutch Country Folk Culture in the Pennsylvania German Archives of Ursinus College” mentioned that this piece was found to compare in most details to a Vorschrift signed by fraktur artist Jacob Strickler in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. Since then, however, at least one scholar of Virginia fraktur has argued that this piece is by an unknown artist who made one other known fraktur, a Vorschrift made for Jacob Strickler dated 1801. That Vorschrift is in English, however, so it is impossible to compare the handwriting style with the German script on this piece. Jacob Strickler was born in the Mennonite community of Massanutten in Shenandoah County (now Page) in Virginia in 1770. He may have been a preacher within the community as well as a schoolmaster and fraktur artist. Strickler’s style is usually very colorful and flamboyant, sometimes covering the page with images of flowers. The more sedate nature of this piece suggests it may not have been done by Strickler, although the script lettering is very similar to his hand.
Condition
Good
Published
Rumford, Beatrix, ed. American Folk Paintings: Paintings and Drawings Other Than Portraits from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (Boston: A New York Graphic Society Book Published in Association with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988). pp. 331, 325. Minardi, Lisa. Roots: Ursinus College and the Pennsylvania Germans (Trappe, Pa.: Historic Trappe, 2019). p. 99, fig. 3.74.
File Format
.jpeg
Type
image
Keywords
fraktur, Pennsylvania German, Pennsylvania Dutch, folk art, illuminated manuscript, writing exercise
Image Location
Rights Statement
No Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Only. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-NC/1.0/
This object has been digitized in a public-private partnership. As part of this partnership, the partners have agreed to limit commercial uses of this digital representation of the object by third parties. You can, without permission, copy, modify, distribute, display, or perform the digital object, for non-commercial uses. For any other permissible uses, please review the terms and conditions of the organization that has made the item available.
