Birth & baptismal certificate on laid paper. Printed form with central textblock in German within a multiple line border. Infilled and decorated around textblock by Speyer; cross-legged angel at top, pelicans feeding young at sides and flowers at sides and bottom. Watercolors are red, blue, yellow, green and brown.
Infilled for Johannes, son of Valiendein (Valentine) and Eliesabetha (Elisabetha) Bohmer of Brecknock Township in Lancaster Co., born Dec. 13, 1788.
Georg Friederich Speyer (active 1774-1801) used this printed form produced c. 1789 by Barton & Johnson of Reading. See Notes.
General wear with numerous creases and wrinkles; one pronounced vertical centerline crease. Repaired tears, esp at left edge. All edges are ragged and uneven, esp. at right.
Conserved by CCAHA in 1989 (see report in file). Hinged into window mat & back mat. Relaced in its original frame using UF-3 Plexiglas and acid-free cardboard on reverse with a taped mylar dust shield.
Object ID
G.77.50.1
Notes
Printed form by Reading printers Thomas Barton and Benjamin Johnson, circa 1789 (see Klaus Stopp, The Printed Birth & Baptismal Certificates of the Pa. Germans, v. 4, p. 84). Speyer used this printed form for Johannes Bohmer who was born the previous year in1788.
Place of Origin
Lancaster County
Role
Artist
Credit
Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Richard Flanders Smith, Heritage Center Collection
Birth certificate is hand done by artist using design elements from printed fraktur. Multicolor text is enclosed in a central arched arbor w/ flame finials. Text names Christian, a son of Jacob and Barbara (KIndig) Bachman, born 1827 in Lampeter Twp. Two confronting angels flank arbor and 2 additional text blocks of religious verse support arbor. A pavilion at bottom is flanked by blue trees & large colorful pinwheel flowers.
Border at sides and top have colorful, repeating floral/foliate motifs; top is arched. Hearts and flowers fill top corners. Above arbor is a large 4-point stylized star flanked by reclining trees.
Artist uses red, blue, light blue, black, yellow, white, green, orange and brown.
Inscribed on reverse in black ink is "No 4 made by Eli Haverstick 1834."
Provenance
Descent in Bachman family to donor. Two nearly identical birth certificates are known, for older sister Anne, b. 1823 (private owner-Barbara Ann Mable) and younger brother John, b. 1832 (G.96.9.1). Similarity suggests all were made at the same time in 1834.
Bachman family genealogy in file. See info on Christian Bachman in Mennonite Arts, 2002, pp. 56-57.
Conserved by Susan Duhl in 2001. Generally worn and discolored. Repair to edge tears & corner loss. Abrasions & paper fill in top right corner were in-painted with watercolor. Tape at back of top edge is now removed w/ remaining stain. See report in file.
Object ID
G.00.23.1
Notes
Haverstick is believed to be a teacher due to being absent on tax rolls for Conestoga Twp.
Christian Bachman (1827-1901) became a prominent cabinetmaker in eastern Lancaster County, just like his father Jacob Bachman (1798-1867). He married Barbara Buckwalter in 1855. After marriage, he moved to Strasburg where he set up his own shop.
Place of Origin
Conestoga Twp.
Role
Artist
Credit
In memory of Charles Bachman, grandson of Christian Bachman, by his son Charles Bachman, Jr. and family.
Family register for Metzger family, hand-drawn, lettered and watercolored, horizontal orientation on wove paper, attributed to Karl Seybold (arctive c. 1813-1846). Format is the English style of register rather than Pa. German. Framed in molded softwood frame with very dark brown finish.
Within an inked double-line border is a grouping at top of rectangles with text re: parents. Father George Metzger born in Conestoga Twp.(1799-1845) and mother Maria Huber Metzger born in Boro of Strasburg (1804-1890), married 1821. Polychrome flowers surround text blocks. Father was Lutheran, mother (daughter of Abraham and Maria Longenecker Huber), apparently Mennonite (unbaptized as a child).
Below text blocks are 8 circles bordered w/ polychrome stylized flowers. Each circle records birth of a child. Birthplaces indicate pattern of residence:1st child born Lancaster Boro (1824), 2nd & 3rd Lancaster Twp (1827-1829), 4th & 5th in Manheim Twp (1831-1833) and last three in Warwick Twp (1836-1841).
Karl F. T. Seybold came to America in 1806, becoming a school teacher in Northampton Co. by 1813. His desire to join the Harmony Society in Ambridge, Pa. was unfulfilled, so he moved with his wife to Lancaster Co. in the 1830s, reportedly at the urging of his mother-in-law. He taught school and apparently lived in a Menno. community, doing mostly birth records and family registers for them (names like Funk, Hostetter, Herr, Kauffman, Huber, Miller, etc.).
Provenance
Unknown provenance before acquisition from sellers. Earnests do list the source of this fraktur as "Der Kurier" 9/93 p. 4. This is the newsletter of the Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society, published quarterly in March, June, September, and December. It is indexed in the Periodical Source Index by the Allen County Public Library, Ft. Wayne, Indiana and the Genealogical Periodical Annual Index by Heritage Books Inc, Bowie, Maryland
Old cardboard back has mailing label from L.E. Waterman Co. in New York City to W.H. Corey, Jr. of Owego, N.Y. A 12-cent stamp affixed to corner dates from early 20th century.
Paper soiling, foxing and scattered stains overall; significant moisture stains along bottom right border and smaller ones near center as well as along paper edges. Paper has significant spidery, stained cracks extending inwards from both right and left edges, clustered at center. Each side is repaired on reverse with a 2.5" - 3"-wide vertical band of paper tape, causing the dark staining seen at cracks on front. Vertical paper cracks at fold lines extend in from top and bottom. Frame has been recut to current size and has nicks and moderate wear. Corrugated cardboard backing replaced with acid-free board, Dec. 2004..
Oil on canvas. woman seated facing slightly to right wiht head facing more forward. Left arm draped over chair back. Brown hair parted at center, wearing low crowned cap with elaborate bows and lace coering ears to neck. Gray green eyes. Black pleated dress with stiffening around waist, v-neckline with embroidery or lace collar. Wrapped in soft grey shawl with left hand exposed. Low backed chair is reddish. Background is various browns. Stencil on back: 'A. Armstrong/Artist/ Lancaster, Pa." "1845" painted below stencil. Frame: wooden with multiple stepped profile on molding. Gilded.
Extensive craquelure. Raised stretcher line. Sagging canvas top left and left side. Scattered dark spots across right 2/3. Frame: good overall with worn gilding and inpainting and soil. Minor chips at outside edges. Back uncovered. Mortise and tenon stretcher with keys; some missing or replaced. At left bottom miter joint, a strip of gesso crack filler is loose and pressing against canvas.
Object ID
2009.020.1
Credit
Given in Memory of Marsha Sener Schuyler by Janet Godfrey Alspach and Gretchen Godfrey
