Scrivened page, probably a detached page from the front of a Bible. Watercolored pink and grey over pencil layout.
Horizontal guide lines in pencil still present. Checkerboard border with single rose projecting inward from each corner, then the words" Dieses Buch/ gehoret mir/ Enos Fischer/ Lancaster County Penna/ Geschrieben den 18ten Juni im Jahr/ 1898", then a pair of tulips at the bottom.
Center of letters, flowers, and border are highlighted with a gold paint. Scrolled decoration surrounding the words "Enos Fischer" and vining and leaf decoration around the capital 'D" of Dieses and "B" of Buch.
Newly framed under glass in a gold and black painted, molded, wooden frame. (Written by Michael Middleton.)
Provenance
From Mead and Mead Antiques, York, PA for $100.00, received Oct. 18, 1997. Paid for by the Donegal Chapter of DAR,
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