Birth and Baptismal Certificate for birth of Michael Cassel of Dauphin County. Hand-done fraktur has single heart design as well as text and decoration created entirely by Friedrich Krebs (1749 - c. 1815) on a half-size sheet of laid paper. Mounted in an old flat profile frame, now removed.
Within a large central heart drawn with scallops only is the text done in German: the black is in script and the red is conventional German. (Note: These frakturs were produced by Krebs ahead of time with the red. The black script is the infill, done with family information). Each bottom corner of fraktur has a large bird with up-turned head (hand printed with woodcut), perched on a tulip with additional large petaled flower extending upward along each side. Amorphous motif at bottom center resembles stylized wings of putti. Faded watercolors are red, green, brown and some yellow in top center flower.
Text begins with --? Township in Dauphin County in 1818. Born to the parents on the 7th of January was a son in the sign of Capricorn at 4:00 in the evening. The father was Jacob Cassel and the mother was Salom(?), nee Juinin(?). Son was baptized by ---? ----? 30th of April and given the name Michael ----?. Sponsors were Wilhelm Juin(?) and his wife Li--na(?). (The sponsors were likely the maternal grandparents.)
No watermark visible.
Perhaps the same families as another 1/2 size Krebs BBC done in 1815 for the Cassel/Juius(?) families of Dauphin County (Earnest, p. 467). See other half-size BBCs with single heart motif (copies in this file). See NOTES.
The 1790 Census lists a Jacob Cassel living in Montgomery Co. (no Cassels in Dauphin County).
Strong soil, foxing and mottled liquid stains throughout, resulting in some color bleeding. Reverse side is especially bad with moisture stains and foxing. There is a horizontal center fold and some additional horizontal creases. Multiple short vertical wrinkles appearing as near-tears, esp. through mid-section. One tear up from bottom to right of center about 1" long. Removed from frame and acidic mounting. Edge at left is ragged with small losses. The other three sides have been unevenly hand cut.
Object ID
P.05.24.1
Notes
The Earnests note that Krebs was the most prolific of all fraktur artists. He was a Hessian soldier, later becoming a schoolmaster in Swatara Twp., in what is now Dauphin County. He lived on 3 acres of land just west of Hummelstown. His fraktur work included a very broad area of eastern PA counties as well as New Jersey. (See Earnest, Papers for Birth Dayes, pp. 460-467).
See other examples:
Shelley, Pa. Ger. Fraktur, fig. 34. Geo. Scott Sale, 1994, lot #420, Deyerle Sale, 1995, lot #422-424, Free Library of Phila., fig. 300, Klaus Stopp, Printed BBCs of the German Americans, Vol. I, pp.140-145,
