April 24, 2004 12:00 EST
Americana
191
FRAKTUR: A VERSE FROM A HYMN TO THE NIGHTINGALE
Rev. George Geistweite (ca. 1761-1831), Centre County, Pennsylvania, 1801
PROVENANCE:
The backboard inscribed, "Originally this belonged to Grandpa Bower. It was made by his day school teacher Jacob Geisewite in the year 1801. After Grandma Bower's death Aunt Polly Keen had it in possession. After Aunt Polly died Sister Alice brought it home for mother. My father framed it. C.G. Bright Dec. 5 1901." and "The above statement is correct. Elijah Burd told me the same story on Nov. 13th 1905 (Aaronsburg, Pa., Nov. 13, 1905) John A. Bright, Topeka, Kansas." A final inscription, "From the George Horace Lorimer Collection Sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries March 8, 1944. Purchased by Hattie K. Brunner." The fraktur probably came to the Bright family with the marriage of Jane Bower (1835-1896) to William H. Bright (1835-1911) Sunbury, Pa. in 1855. The fraktur is illustrated, page 58, lot 388, and sold March 30th, 1944, in the second session of Important American & English Furniture, Staffordshire and Liverpool Ware, Oriental Lowestoft Porcelain, Early American Glass, Paintings, Pennsylvania Folk Art Collected by the Late George Horace Lorimer, At Park-Bernet Galleries, Inc. This fraktur is discussed by Donald A. Shelley, "The Fraktur-Writings or Illuminated Manuscripts of the Pennsylvania Germans," The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society, Volume 23, 1961, pp. 120, 121, 132, 179, illustration number 231. The only other known fraktur by Geistweit is in the Titus C. Geesey Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The two frakturs were worked during the summer of 1801 for the Bower family and share many decorative devices: men, horses, double-eagles, hens and chicks, lions and stylized flowers. The ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY (1857), pp. 285-286, record that "At a meeting of the German Reformed Synod, held at Reading, in May (1794), the Reverend George Geistweite was licensed as a minister, and a call immediately presented him from the Shamokin churches. The congregations in all these regions had been vacant since the Reverend J. Rahauser left them, in 1792. Mr. Geistweite preached steadily at Selinsgrove, Subury, &c., and occasionally in Buffalo Valley, in the newly-built town of New Berlin, at Penn's Creek, &c. He labored here until 1804, when he accepted a call to York, Pennsylvania. He died there, November 11, 1831, aged seventy years, and buried in the Reformed Grave-yard there. There are still some people living in the Valley who were confirmed and married by him and speak of him with great affection and gratitute. Mr Geistweite bears the enviable reputation of having been one of the kindest and most benevolent of men. It is reported of him that, on one occasion, he even took the hat from his own head and gave it to a poor wanderer, whose destitute condition appealed to his charity." Reverend D. Y. Heisler, Fathers German Reformed Church, volume 3, page 77.
Sold for $401,000
Estimated at $15,000 - $25,000
FRAKTUR: A VERSE FROM A HYMN TO THE NIGHTINGALE
Rev. George Geistweite (ca. 1761-1831), Centre County, Pennsylvania, 1801
PROVENANCE:
The backboard inscribed, "Originally this belonged to Grandpa Bower. It was made by his day school teacher Jacob Geisewite in the year 1801. After Grandma Bower's death Aunt Polly Keen had it in possession. After Aunt Polly died Sister Alice brought it home for mother. My father framed it. C.G. Bright Dec. 5 1901." and "The above statement is correct. Elijah Burd told me the same story on Nov. 13th 1905 (Aaronsburg, Pa., Nov. 13, 1905) John A. Bright, Topeka, Kansas." A final inscription, "From the George Horace Lorimer Collection Sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries March 8, 1944. Purchased by Hattie K. Brunner." The fraktur probably came to the Bright family with the marriage of Jane Bower (1835-1896) to William H. Bright (1835-1911) Sunbury, Pa. in 1855. The fraktur is illustrated, page 58, lot 388, and sold March 30th, 1944, in the second session of Important American & English Furniture, Staffordshire and Liverpool Ware, Oriental Lowestoft Porcelain, Early American Glass, Paintings, Pennsylvania Folk Art Collected by the Late George Horace Lorimer, At Park-Bernet Galleries, Inc. This fraktur is discussed by Donald A. Shelley, "The Fraktur-Writings or Illuminated Manuscripts of the Pennsylvania Germans," The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society, Volume 23, 1961, pp. 120, 121, 132, 179, illustration number 231. The only other known fraktur by Geistweit is in the Titus C. Geesey Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The two frakturs were worked during the summer of 1801 for the Bower family and share many decorative devices: men, horses, double-eagles, hens and chicks, lions and stylized flowers. The ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY (1857), pp. 285-286, record that "At a meeting of the German Reformed Synod, held at Reading, in May (1794), the Reverend George Geistweite was licensed as a minister, and a call immediately presented him from the Shamokin churches. The congregations in all these regions had been vacant since the Reverend J. Rahauser left them, in 1792. Mr. Geistweite preached steadily at Selinsgrove, Subury, &c., and occasionally in Buffalo Valley, in the newly-built town of New Berlin, at Penn's Creek, &c. He labored here until 1804, when he accepted a call to York, Pennsylvania. He died there, November 11, 1831, aged seventy years, and buried in the Reformed Grave-yard there. There are still some people living in the Valley who were confirmed and married by him and speak of him with great affection and gratitute. Mr Geistweite bears the enviable reputation of having been one of the kindest and most benevolent of men. It is reported of him that, on one occasion, he even took the hat from his own head and gave it to a poor wanderer, whose destitute condition appealed to his charity." Reverend D. Y. Heisler, Fathers German Reformed Church, volume 3, page 77.
