Vorschrift

Date1801

MediumWatercolor and ink on laid paper

DimensionsPrimary Support: 7 1/2 x 12 3/4in. (19.1 x 32.4cm) and Framed: 9 3/8 x 14 1/2 x 3/4in. (23.8 x 36.8 x 1.9cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1974.305.8

DescriptionA horizontal format writing exercises incorporating several alphabets and sets of numbers but beginning with a quotation from the Bible. The letters in the first line are considerably larger than any of the remaining ones and the initial letter ("R") is significantly ornamented. Several flowers fill the remaining space in the upper margin. The text is in English.

Artist unidentified.

The frame is a modern one (added 1974 or soon after), of black-painted, cyma recta molded wood.
Label TextThe bottom line of the text of this Vorschrift (writing exercise) indicates that it was made for Jacob Strickler, the creator of several fraktur works in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum.
The Vorschrift probably was copied from a model created by Strickler, for the flower shown at upper right can be seen in another work that is signed by him. This copywork is one of the pieces that suggest that Strickler was a teacher or a minister or a combination of both. The Biblical verse is from Proverbs 27: 17-18.
InscribedThe ink inscription on the front includes four styles of alphabet and, above them, a biblical verse that reads: "Rejoyce not when thine/Enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when/he Stumbleth. Lest the Lord See it and it displease him,/ and he turn away his wrath from him. The Proverb Ch: the 24." Beginning at the end of the last line of the alphabet is the inscription: "1801: For Jacob Strickler Living in Shenandoah County April/the 3:th 1801=."
ProvenanceThis piece was acquired, along with 11 others (see "Related Works"), from Jesse Modisett, Augustus M. Modisett, Harold M. Modisett, and Mrs. Lawrence H. Modisett. Jesse Modisett's letter to Don Walters dated December 19, 1974, identifies these three relations as his brothers and sister-in-law. Ownership prior to the Modisetts' has not been recorded.