17th or 18th Century?

[kungfufighter]

Attached is a photo of an 18th century Berks County, PA fraktur wrought by Conrad Trevitz. Though it does obviously exhibit a symmetry of sorts the artistry is very "free," folky and indicative of the work from this period. In posting this I am hoping to better express my written descriptions of 18th century Pennsylvania folk art by offering a visual comparison.

 

[kungfufighter]

Help me out Charlie - you are an artist, can you see what I am trying to express about the contrasting styles of the workmanship?

 

[cyberdigger]

I'm trying to read this certificate you just posted.. is it a birth cert or marriage?? very neat! And much looser form than the holy water bottle for sure..

 

[kungfufighter]

That's a darn good question Charlie. Just bought the piece yesterday and haven't had a chance to do much research other than to verify the identity of the artist. My sense is that it is a Taufscheine (birth or baptismal certificate) but I really haven't had a chance to look at it much. In all honesty, I bought the piece simply for its artistic merits and did not spend even an ounce of deductive brainpower when making the decision to write a check. (Time will tell if that was an oversight) As I was sitting here commenting upon the stag I happened to look up and realized that a photo of this piece might make an important contribution to this discussion.

 

[kungfufighter]

Oh, and yes, "loose" is the word in this instance but attractively and naively so. The artwork on the bottles I am questioning seems overly contrived and too formulaic for it to be of the same same school/period as the fraktur.

 

[cyberdigger]

..indeed.. BTW I think it's a birth cert. The top reads "Veronica Hahnin was born to christian parents on...."

Regarding the bottles, one thing that stands out as clearly different about Aaron's piece is that there is no attempt at depth of image, no shadowing or highlighting like Steve's bottles have, as well as the animal pictorials..

 

[kungfufighter]

You are spot on Charlie - just had a chance to actually "read" the fraktur and it is in fact a birth certificate as you suggest.

 

[cyberdigger]

It seems to be a combo of birth and baptism record (getauft worden).. they probably didn't waste much time getting babies baptized back then, with the high risk of infant mortality.. the weird thing is they even mention she was born under Virgo.. very interesting Jeff!!

 

[appliedlips]

I agree that the fact that the repairs on the collar are the same and that 2 have recently shown up furthers the assumption they are fakes.. Where have these colored ones been for decades? Both of the bottles are on the West Coast, place of import? Closer to Mexico? Both are " too crude" with whittle and seed bubbles, something you see alot of when reproducing glass. Neither look to have much wear or patina. Lot #123, as Jeff pointed out is new junk showing that the auctioneer can make the mistake..

 

[pyshodoodle]

As a side note, I just have to say that Veronica seems like a very unusual name for a PA German in 1770. Wonder what the story was behind that name selection.