Fraktur: Four Poems: "Money"; "Friend"; "Young Gentlemen"; and "Young Ladies"; with a Chronology of World Events, 1692-1813, and Stylized Floral Designs

Artist/Maker Unidentified Artist (Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Lakota))

Fraktur: Four Poems: "Money"; "Friend"; "Young Gentlemen"; and "Young Ladies"; with a Chronology of World Events, 1692-1813, and Stylized Floral Designs

ca. 1814

Place madePortsmouth, New Hampshire, United States, North America

Brown ink and wash, and gouache on beige paper

Overall: 12 1/4 × 14 1/2 in. (31.1 × 36.8 cm)

Elie Nadelman, Museum of Folk Arts, Riverdale-on-Hudson, Bronx, New York

1937.1822

The Pennsylvania Germans practiced a manuscript art called Frakturschrift or Zierschrift in German ("fraktur" in museum and collecting terminology). This art form, combining calligraphy with decorative motifs in ink and watercolor, was produced widely in Pennsylvania and in German settlements in other states from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century. Though this example is inscribed in English, it is related stylistically to the art of fraktur.

DescriptionFraktur: Horizontal rectangular sheet with handwritten English inscriptions and stylized floral decoration in pink, green, and yellow; four poems: "Money" at center inside rectangular border; "Friend" in two sections; and "Young Gentlemen"; and "Young Ladies", at lower left and right, respectively. Also, a chronology of world events, from the "Great Earthquake in Lisbon, Dec. 18, 1692" to the "Third great fire in Portsmouth, Dec. 22, 1813", inscribed inside ten circles arranged vertically in two groups of five at left and right margins.

InscribedInscribed with four poems and chronology of world events, beginning at center: "MONEY / Had both ___ and a ___ / Of neither thought nor care, / Lent my ____ to my ___/ And took his word ____ therefore, / Ask'd my ___ of my ___ / And promises ___ got, / Forc'd my ___ from my ___ / For lose it _____ would not, / So then came ____ with my ____ / Which pleas'd me ___ wond'rous well, / Had my ____ but my ____ / Away ____ from me fell / Had my ____ my best ____ / As had ____ once before, / 'd keep my _____ my best ____ / And play the ______ fool no more / FRIEND. . . ."

ClassificationsDRAWINGS