Photograph- East King Steet showing News Depot and Myers & ______Merchandise. Listing on back of 133 different stereocopic views available from William Gill's Gallery in Lancaster.
Photograph- East King Steet showing News Depot and Myers & ______Merchandise. Listing on back of 133 different stereocopic views available from William Gill's Gallery in Lancaster.
Description
East King Steet showing News Depot and Myers & ______Merchandise. Listing on back of 133 different stereocopic views available from William Gill's Gallery in Lancaster.
This frog doorstop serves as an iconic symbol of James Buchanan's attachment to his favorite spring at his Wheatland farm, and was donated because it was an appropriate piece.
Lignum vitas wood caster with round, bowl-like top, pierced for shaking out pounce. Base is ring-turned tapers smaller to broad top, flat bottom. Small, shallow dotted pattern in two bands near bottom. Lip at top has thin groove. Top screws onto base that would be filled with pounce, which is a fine powder made from powdered cuttlefish bone. Pounce was used both to dry ink and to sprinkle on a rough writing surface to make it smooth enough for writing.
Esther 'Hetty' Parker, James Buchanan's housekeeper, chose this among several other household items that Buchanan noted she was to be allowed to choose after his death. Miss Hetty gave this to the daughter of her neighbor. Miss Steckman donated this to the Wheatland collection in 1938.
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
Multicolored Vorschrift done by schoolmaster/fraktur artist Christian Strenge on rectangular laid paper. Bordered in a yellow band with red corners. German script text has an elaborately embellished large upper case letter "K" at upper left and multicolored floral design filling entire right side, surmounted by a distinctive yellow crested bird. Colors are red, yellow, blue and green. Modern frame.
Hand-printed in black ink above the letter "K" is the name of recipient, David Neff. Signed at the bottom by Strenge in German script: "Written in Hempfield Township in the year 1801 by Christian Strenge." Inscribed on reverse in script is "David Neff" in black ink.
The text begins with Psalm 95:1-4, "Kommt lasset(?) uns dem...," followed by two alphabets, the first in upper case and the second in lower case, and finally the numerals 1 - 14. (See translation on copy of nearly identical fraktur in file).
Provenance
Provenance: This Vorschrift was recently found in a book in the library of Sarah Stauffer on Lime Spring farm along the Marietta Pike. Consigned to sale at Conestoga Auction Co. and purchased 29 June 1998 with funds from V. Ronald Smith ($9,725) and the Donegal Chapter of the D.A.R. ($125).
John J. Snyder, Jr. researched Stauffer genealogy to discover a relationship to David Neff. See letters & charts in this file which explain the likelihood that the fraktur may have passed from Neff (probably when he went to Ohio, perhaps unknowingly hidden in a book, even as it was found recently) to his cousins, such as Anna Bear Lehman who is in the direct line of Stauffer descent. David Neff (1791-1866) was the son of Henry & Anna Oberholzer Neff. He would have been about 10 yrs. old when fraktur was made.
Generally good condition, although two folds show some breaking with tangential tears. Other minor tears and one small hole at right center. Some soiling, foxing and minor stains overall. Edges lifting in frame.
Conserved 1998 by Marilyn Kemp Weidner of Phila. Surfaced cleaned and losses repaired. Hinge-mounted on acid free mat and sealed in a package for framing. Mounted in modern black frame by Lancaster Galleries circa 2004.
Object ID
P.98.25.1
Notes
Christian Strenge was a Hessian soldier turned school teacher.
Place of Origin
East Petersburg, East Hempfield Twp.
Role
Artist
Credit
Gift of V. Ronald Smith and the Donegal Chapter of the D.A.R., Heritage Center Collection
Fraktur, religious text in German by Adam Siegel (died 1809, active c. 1790-1804), done on wove paper in pen & ink for Martin Bar, framed in old dark brown varnished poplar frame (not original to fraktur).
The name "Martin Bar" fills the upper half in large fraktur-style lettering, illuminated with scrolling filigree. Included in the scrolling are two cartoonish heart-shaped faces with stubbled hair and shaded beards. Underneath name are six lines of religious text in German script, ending with the last line: "Geschrieben von mir ADS d(en) 28ten Mertz 1802."
Double-line border at top and left side only. Last word of fourth line of text appears to have been trimmed. Fraktur thus appears to have been trimmed at right and bottom. Reverse has pencil scribbles and one in ink.
Appears to have been trimmed at right side and bottom. Scattered dark stains, pinholes along fold lines, slightly larger holes at "i" in "Martin" and within the "B" of "Bar." Liquid stain of 1/2" size at center and one at right side at text. A tear 3/4"-long at right edge above center.
Replaced heavy paper backing used by vendors with acid-free matboard, 11/05.
Object ID
P.05.04.6
Notes
Papers for Birth Dayes notes that Siegel immigrated to America in 1774 and was a schoolmaster in Lancaster Co, perhaps in the Strasburg area. Although he made fraktur for Mennonites, he was not Mennonite. His work is usually not watercolored.
Paper included with purchase has the text rewritten in German script with an English translation below (see file). This person translates the recipient's name as Martin Biehr, although it is normally seen elsewhere as "Bare" or "Bear". Ellis & Evans gives numerous references to the name Martin Bare, usually found in the townships of Conestoga, East Lampeter and Upper Leacock.
Possible Bar/Bare family connections: See also a birth record for Andreas Bar (Andrew Bear) P.80.136 by an unknown scrivener. This Andreas/Andrew was the youngest son of Andrew Bear and wife Christina Heighley. A desk-and-bookcase P.77.34 has inscription of Adam Bare on its drawer. His father John Bear an older brother of Andreas. Relation of these Bears/Bares to Martin is unknown. Jane Evans Best (see her letter re: Bear family in file P80.136) would be a good source of help.
Place of Origin
Lancaster County
Credit
Gift of Irene N. Walsh, Heritage Center Collection
