Highly artistic and elaborate illuminated folk art
Type
Folk art
Area
Pennsylviania
Country
United States
Fraktur is a highly artistic and elaborate illuminated folk art created by the Pennsylvania Dutch, named after the Fraktur script associated with it. Most Fraktur were created between 1740 and 1860.
Fraktur drawings were executed in ink and/or watercolors and are found in a wide variety of forms: the Vorschriften (writing samples), the Taufscheine (birth and baptismal certificates), marriage and house blessings, book plates, and floral and figurative scenes. The earlier Fraktur were executed entirely by hand, while printed text became increasingly common in later examples. Common artistic motifs in Fraktur include birds (distelfinks), hearts, and tulips, as well as blackletter (Fraktur) and italiccalligraphy.
This 1789 Pennsylvania German chest of drawers show many of the traditional forms that are used in fraktur
Many major American museums, including the American Folk Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Winterthur Museum have Fraktur in their collections. Important Fraktur have been sold by major American auction houses and antique dealers for prices in excess of $100,000. The definitive text on Fraktur is widely considered to be The Fraktur-Writings or Illuminated Manuscripts of the Pennsylvania Germans, written by Dr. Donald A. Shelley and published by the Pennsylvania German Society in 1961. In late 2004, the majority of Dr. Shelley's Fraktur collection was sold at public auction at Pook & Pook, Inc. in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, for $913,448.
Notable artists
Fraktur birth and baptismal certificate (Geburts und Taufschein) of Johanes Bender by Johann Heinrich Otto
Notable fraktur artists within the Pennsylvania German community include:
Hartung, Ruthanne. Fraktur: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Learning the Craft. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2008.
Moyer, Dennis K. Fraktur writings and folk art drawings of the Schwenkfelder Library Collection. Kutztown, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania German Society, 1997.
Shelley, Donald. The Fraktur Writings or Illuminated Manuscripts of the Pennsylvania Germans. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania German Folklore Society, 1961.
Earnest, Corinne and Russell. To The Latest Prosperity: Pennsylvania-German Family Registers in the Fraktur Tradition. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania German Society, 2004.
Earnest, Corinne and Russell. Papers For Birth Dayes: Guide To the Fraktur Artists and Scriveners. East Berlin, Pennsylvania: Russell D. Earnest Associates, 1997. 2 Volumes.
Earnest, Corinne and Russell. Fraktur: Folk Art & Family. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1999.
Earnest, Russell and Corinne. Flying Leaves and One-Sheets: Pennsylvania German Broadsides, Fraktur, and Their Printers. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Books, 2005.
Fraktur and Related Works on Paper, The Pioneer Collection of Dr. & Mrs. Donald A. Shelley, Auction Catalogue, October 8, 2004, Pook & Pook, Inc., Downingtown, Pennsylvania - www.pookandpook.com.
External links
Look up fraktur in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center is a not-for-profit historical library, archive, and museum located in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania. Its mission is to "protect, preserve and interpret books, manuscripts and artifacts of the Schwenkfelders and the people of southeastern Pennsylvania in general and the Perkiomen Valley in particular."
Susanna Cox (1785–1809) was a young domestic servant in Berks County, Pennsylvania, convicted of murdering her illegitimate infant son. On the morning of February 17, 1809, her employer found the baby's body in a rubbish bin behind his property. Susanna was immediately questioned, and while she admitted that the baby was hers, she insisted that it was stillborn. After a short investigation, she was convicted on April 7, 1809. Her the court-appointed lawyers did little to defend her and no witnesses were called to testify on her behalf. After a short imprisonment in the local sheriff's home, she was executed in Reading on June 10, 1809.
Johannes Scholl was a German-American woodcarver who rose to notoriety years after his death. He is known for only using a jackknife and paint to create his colorful and symbolic wood sculptures. He is regarded today as being one of the most influential folk artists of the 20th century.
Johannes Spitler was an American painter of furniture.
Daniel Schumacher was an American fraktur painter. He was the first artist to use fraktur as a method of general record-keeping, rather than a document of important events.
Christian Alsdorff was an American Fraktur artist.
Johann Jacob Friedrich Krebs, commonly known as Friedrich Krebs was an American fraktur artist. He was the most prolific of the Pennsylvania German fraktur artists.
Johann HenrichOtto was an American fraktur artist.
Daniel Otto was an American fraktur artist.
Christian Mertel was an American fraktur artist.
Johann Christian Strenge was an American fraktur artist.
Daniel Peterman (1797-1871) was an American fraktur artist. A third-generation American, Peterman was a native of Shrewsbury Township, York County, Pennsylvania, where he died. A member of the Reformed Church, he was a schoolmaster in that tradition, and in the Lutheran Church as well. He was married and had children. Much of his fraktur was produced for the children of York County, and many of his pieces are similar to one another in their format, in which two female figures border the text and various flowers and birds are added as decoration. For his family, he created more elaborate pictures, in which a variety of objects, from sailing ships to pianos, are shown. One baptismal record for a nephew includes in its decorative scheme a market house, chickens, and a dog. Sometimes he added Adam and Eve into his compositions; he also drew courting couples. His palette is bright. Peterman used ruled paper to continue his art when hand-milled paper became unavailable; he continued to work well into the 1860s. He was among the most prolific fraktur artists active in York County, alongside Johannes Bard. Nearly all of his pieces were made for families in Paradise, Codorus, Shrewsbury and Manheim townships.
JohannesBard (1797–1861) was an American fraktur artist.
Johann Adam Eyer (1755–1837) was an American fraktur artist.
Johann Conrad Gilbert (1734–1812) was an American fraktur artist.
Samuel Gottschall (1800–1898) was an American fraktur artist.
The Sussel-Washington Artist was an American fraktur artist active during the 1770s and 1780s.
Ludwig Denig was an American folk artist.
John Van Minian was an American fraktur artist.
Jacob Maentel or Mental (1763–1863) was a German-American folk artist known for his portrayal of 19th-Century America. Maentel is most notable for his watercolor portrait art that minutely portrayed the décor and dress of early American immigrant communities.
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