Bookplate for Chatarina Ratzelin

Date1815

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Northampton County (probably)

MediumWatercolor and ink on laid paper

DimensionsBookplate alone: 5 3/4 x 3 1/4in. (14.6 x 8.3cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1966.305.5,b

DescriptionTwo sheets, i.e., four pages, including the one bearing this bookplate, are now detached from the book's binding; they are laid loosely in their original place within the book. See also the separate entry for the book per se, 1966.305.5,a.

A hand-painted bookplate, the colors primarily red and black but including touches of yellow ochre. The vertical rectangular format is divided into two sections by a horizontal line about 3/5 down; the top section is filled with the colorful design of a flying angel (only the head is shown) above a sprouting flower, complete with foliage and flanked by two birds on each side. In the space below appear eight lines of text, of which lines 1, 2, 5, and 7 are written in red, lines 3, 4, 6, and 8 in black. A border encloses the whole, although only the outer (thumb-edge) border is filled with alternating black dashes and red decorations resembling the tops of hearts.

Artist unidentified.
Label TextAlthough the page bearing this hand-painted bookplate has become detached from its binding, it remains in its original location at the front of the volume, laid loosely in place. Red and black inks were used in alternating fashion for the text, a technique common to pieces of this type and also to Vorschriften (writing exercises). The same colored inks and yellow ocher watercolor were used for the symmetrical decoration at the top featuring a winged angel, birds, flowers, and foliage. The precise lettering indicates an experienced hand, perhaps that of a schoolmaster. Bookplates and bookmarkers were often presented as rewards of merit to young students attending parochial schools in early Pennsylvania.
The wording of this bookplate is both charming and serviceable, identifying the psalter's owner and warning any who might think of carrying it off.
InscribedThe hand-painted bookplate is inscribed in Fraktur-style lettering beneath the pictorial imagery, the transcription rendered by Pastor Frederick S. Weiser: "Dieser Psalter gehöret Chatarina/ Ratzelin. Höre büchlein was ich dir/ Thu sagen, wann jemand kommt und/ will dich weg tragen so sprich lass/ mich liegen in gutter ruh dann ich ge/hör Chatarina = Ratzelin, zu/ Wohnhaft in Obermondbethel Taun/schipp Northamton Caunty, A. D. 1815".
The translation of these lines, also provided by Pastor Frederick S. Weiser, reads: "This psalter belongs to Chatarina Ratzelin. Hearken, little book, to what I say to you: If anyone comes and would carry you away, you say: le me lie in good rest [i.e., alone], for I belong to Chatarina Ratzelin, residing in Upper Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County, A. D. 1815."
ProvenanceOwnership prior to vendor Richard H. Wood is undocumented.