Certificate of the Birth and Baptism of Elisabetha Bechtel in Berks County, Pennsylvania

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

Certificate of the Birth and Baptism of Elisabetha Bechtel in Berks County, Pennsylvania

ca. 1802

Place madePennsylvania, United States, North America

Gouache, brown ink, and watercolor on paper

Overall: 8 1/4 x 13 1/2 in. ( 21 x 34.3 cm )

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

1937.1808

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.

DescriptionFraktur: Horizontal rectangular sheet with handwritten German inscription enclosed in a heart surrounded by multi-colored floral sprays with large green leaves; one large pink and green six-pointed star in each upper corner; "Elisabetha" inscribed in rectangular cartouche at center top.

InscribedInscribed in German at upper center in brown ink: "Elisabetha / wurde geboren im Staat Pennsylvani / im County Bercks im Taunschip [Esdistrickt?] / im Jahr nach Christi geburt. 1802. den 21.ten. tag. / Julius .. .. wurde bald daraus getauft bey Herrn Pfarrer / Eltern sind Jacob Bechtel .. .. und seine Ehefrau / Maria .. .. Taufzeugen waren .. .."

ClassificationsDRAWINGS