Pewter beaker or handleless cup. Part of the Warwick Congregation's (now known as the Brickerville United Lutheran Church) communion service.
Cylinder form flares out slightly at bottom as well as top. Banded at base.
Engraved on the exterior, near top, are the small initials "M.W."
Provenance
The entire communion service remained in use over the years until the congregation decided in 1997 to find a safe place for this valuable communion set. Purchased by the Heritage Center of Lancaster County.
Diameter of bottom is listed. Diameter of top is 2.5".
Condition
Good
Condition Date
2014-08-28
Condition Notes
Overall abrasions, pitting, small dents and staining. Rim has multiple small dents and abrasions. Bottom interior is pitted. Wear underneath with some areas slightly cracked. Dent at base.
Object ID
P.97.08.5
Place of Origin
Hartford, Connecticut
Credit
Acquired through the generosity of the James Hale Steinman Foundation and Friends of the Heritage Center Museum, Heritage Center Collection
Bronze bell cast by the firm of John Wilbank in 1825 for use in the cupola of the Lancaster County Courthouse on Penn Square that replaced the first building and bell destroyed by fire in 1784. The 2nd courthouse was rebuilt 1784-1787 and razed in the Spring of 1853. Bell has raised lettering at top of side: "CAST BY JOHN WILBANK/ PHILADA 1825."
Bell itself (H: 19" W: 23 1/2") has classic shape. There are heavy, curved "loops" of brass at top by which the bell is suspended from a yoke-like assembly secured by heavy bolts. The two side arms of the yoke rest atop pivot points of two A-shaped cast iron supports at each side of bell. This entire arrangement rested on a square base of heavy oak beams which was mounted in the belfry of the Rohrer farmhouse located at the east edge of East Petersburg. A large wooden wheel serving as a pulley was affixed to one side of the yoke of bell and a rope could be used to swing and thus ring the bell from below. (All wood was quickly removed & destroyed due to winged ant/termite infestation and advanced rot.)
Bell was regularly used in courthouse to strike the hour via the tower clock as well as for announcing a range of other events and news, e.g. election results and marking the start of business in city market houses on market days.
Provenance
When the courthouse was razed in 1853, the bell was acquired by veterinarian Jacob Rohrer (1792-1872) who installed it in a small belfry in his 1812 farmhouse on Fruitville Pike east of East Petersburg. It was then installed in a new (1857) farmhouse built to the west toward E. Petersburg by son Peter Bachman Rohrer (1827-1900). It remained here until removed and donated to HCLC except for a brief period in 1918 when it was allowed by owner P. Bachman Rohrer (1875-1949) to return to Penn Square for installation in the "Liberty House", a replica of the old courthouse (now in Bachman Park at F&M). See 1918 newsclipping in file. See also a 1942 newclipping giving an undocumented history of a courthouse bell used 1787-1852. (?)
Overall bronze surface weathered and darkened with age & use, deterioration & repairs evident on sides, lip at bottom has extensive chipping. Iron yoke, etc. heavily rusted.
Object ID
G.08.09.1
Notes
Newsclipping "Bell is Discovered", Oct. 14, 1918.
Newsclipping "The Farmer Hid The Bell", June 13, 1942
Bachman history by David Johnson
Place of Origin
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Woman's cotton lawn headcovering. Crown is two separate pieces of fabric, with additional small pieces at the lower front corners. Plain ruffle around front and bottom. Two hemmed cotton ribbons attached at lower front corners; narrow where they attach, widening at the bottom. (Written by Scott Sager.)
Provenance
This pieces was owned and worn by Elizabeth Schneider Mann (1780-1870), the wife of Johannes Mann (1774-1843). She was the great-great grandmother of the donor'ssabalo husband, Rich Hess Mann. Elizabeth Schneider Mann's son, George Snyder Mann, gave the piece to his granddaughter-in-law, Anna Huber Hess, who gave it to her daughter-in-law, the donor Mary Jane Mann.
Year Range From
1820
Year Range To
1840
Storage Location
LancasterHistory, Lancaster, PA
Storage Room
DAC
Storage Wall
Island 2
Storage Cabinet
Unit 13
Storage Shelf
Shelf 3
Storage Container
Box 0059
Object Name
Bonnet
Height (cm)
22.86
Height (ft)
0.75
Height (in)
9
Width (cm)
24.13
Width (ft)
0.7916666667
Width (in)
9.5
Condition
Good
Condition Date
2001-05-23
Condition Notes
Roughly rectangular outline of brown stains at the back; several lighter brown marks on public right side.
Woman's headcovering with a 'dotted Swiss' pattern. Netted ruffle around front and bottom. Black silk ribbons attached at bottom front with metal hooks.
This piece was owned and worn by Elizabeth Schneider Mann (1780-1870), the wife of Johannes Mann (1774-1843). She was the great-great-grandmother of the donor's husband, Richard Hess Mann. Elizabeth Schneider Mann's son, George Snyder Mann, gave the piece to his grand-daughter-in-law, Ann Huber Hess, who gave it to her daughter-in-law, the donor, Mary Jane Mann.
(Written by Wendell Zercher)
Provenance
Donor, Mrs. Richard (Mary Jane) H. Mann. Given in memory of Dr. Richard H. Mann.
Year Range From
1820
Year Range To
1840
Storage Location
LancasterHistory, Lancaster, PA
Storage Room
DAC
Storage Wall
Island 2
Storage Cabinet
Unit 13
Storage Shelf
Shelf 3
Storage Container
Box 0059
Object Name
Bonnet
Height (cm)
25.4
Height (ft)
0.8333333333
Height (in)
10
Width (cm)
22.86
Width (ft)
0.75
Width (in)
9
Condition
Fair
Condition Date
2001-05-23
Condition Notes
Brown stains on both sides and around ruffle. Black silk ribbons are very worn and frayed, especially the one on the proper left side.
Chinese export bowl of high fired porcelain, polychrome decoration under glaze. Thin walled in nearly hemispherical form sitting on a 3/4" raised foot. Gold-painted rim with red edging. Two goldfish inside bottom. Continuous landscape on exterior is the same repeating Roman or Greek scene of a seated half-robed seated man with dog facing three nude women and seated baby. All set against distant mountains and one tree in foreground.
Glazed soft paste porcelain Gaudy Welsh sugar bowl (A) with lid (B). Handpainted inverted tulips of red and yellow are interspersed with 3 large, dominating deep blue scalloped motifs decorated with copper lustre painted floral decoration. Squat pot-bellied body sits on a low squarish pedestal with scalloped edging. Two molded angular applied handles. Top has round mouth with flared collar extends outward. Domed lid has squarish molded knob finial. Darkened remnant of paper sticker with blurred writing, perhaps "-caster/ --ea set/ --1825."
Provenance
Collected by Harpo and Susan Marx during visits back East from CA. Donated to Heritage Center.
Roughly fashioned polychromed softwood miniature trinket box of rectangular form. Domed lid hollowed out underneath and ends fitted with conforming caps. Wire hinges and wire loop at front with missing tin hasp. Corresponding wire loop for hasp on box front. Box sides constructed of rabbet joints secured by two wood pegs at front and two at back. Beveled bottom board attached with two pegs and extends beyond box sides. Top and four sides each have a floral motif of dark green, cream, ochre and red all on a tan ground. Glossy varnish overall except for bottom and interior. Indecipherable initials painted on bottom.
Probably Lancaster County
Provenance
Purchased by donor at Lancaster County sale. At least four other examples known. See example in collection #1973.003.2
Possible maker is Peter Brubacher (1816-1898), shoemaker and woodworker in Clay Township.
Trinket box of softwood constuction covered by German newsprint outside and a coarse blue-green paper inside. Glued over the newsprint are strips of straw of various tones arranged in geometrical designs on domed lid and sides in a technique very similar to marquetry. Newsprint visible on underside as well as where straw pieces are missing. Lid has hinge of coarse linen under laminate. Bent wire hook on lid fits into wire loop on box front.
Provenance
Collected by donor in Lancaster Co. According authority Clarke Hess, these boxes are plentiful, but not usually with newspaper lining. Clarke owns two of these boxes, both with Lancaster German language newsprint, and believes these boxes were made 1820-1840 in PA.
John Tannehill, expert in iron, reports someone told him these boxes were made in prisons.
Within a twisted foliate border is a central block depicting Adam & Eve flanking a tree with a serpent wound around the trunk offering Eve an apple. This is an engraving executed by Gabriel Miesse of Reading; his name appears at lower right followed by "sc" for "sculpsit", indicating the engraver. Two columns of verse flank the central block, telling the story of "the Fall" in conversational form. At top of broadside is the title in German: "Adam und Eva im Paradies." A subtitle reads: "Mel. Herzlich thut mich Verlangen, etc."
At bottom is: "Gedruckt in der Druckerey des Adlers von H.W. Villee, Lancaster, Pa. allwo alle Sorten Bilder, Bucher,/ Schriebmaterialien und Arzneyen zu haben find." This indicates the broadside was printed in the Lancaster Eagle's printshop (a newspaper started by Villee and Jacob Baab on Oct. 26, 1826). Villee was also selling pictures, books, stationery and even medicines out of his shop on N. Queen St.
See biographical info about Villee from Klaus Stopp's book in this file. He was born in France, served as a captain under Napolean, had to leave France in 1815 and ended up in America in 1820. Villee entered the printing business by working at "the Eagle," a newspaper in Reading. Villee was not successful as a printer in Lancaster, and he left sometime in 1832 or soon after, going to places like Lewisburg, Sunbury and Milton. After moving to Northumberland Co. and becoming a teacher, he finally died in 1842.
The Earnests note that Adam & Eve were popular fraktur subjects, especially among German-language printers of SE PA. They note that there are only about a half dozen Adam & Eve broadsides by Villee known.
Exhibited in Fraktur Exhibit in Masonic Lodge circa 2004 through 2007 (removed spring 2008).
See also P.01.60.1 and P04.48 for examples of a Heaven & Hell broadside by Villee.
North Queen St., Lancaster (printer); Reading, PA (engraver). Villee, Herman W., printer; Gabriel Miesse, engraver; unknown colorist
Paper darkened and soiled overall, wrinkled with fold lines and rough-edged with minor tears and folds. Stains scattered over surface with darkest stains within right text above center. Small hole at center of top foliate border.
Frame is homemade of stained and varnished tiger maple. Acidic cardboard backboard replaced with acid free matboard.
Object ID
P.04.48.1
Credit
Acquired through the generosity of Irene N. Walsh, Heritage Center Collection
One of a pair of push-up candlesticks: G99.40.1&.2. Stepped, round base supports a hollow cylindrical shaft topped by a candle cup above a decorative ring. Candlestick shaft is fitted with an inner cylinder with attached knob that raises and lowers candle. Thumb screw knob slides via a slot on side of candlestick and screws tight to secure position.
