Writing Sample

Date1810

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Montgomery County, Salford

MediumInk and watercolor on laid paper

DimensionsPrimary Support: 7 1/2 x 12 1/4in. (19.1 x 31.1cm) and Framed: 12 3/8 x 17 3/8in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1999.305.2

DescriptionAn illuminated writing specimen, the first line of which is written in large, Fraktur-style, horizontally-striped, red and blue letters. The next two lines are smaller and plainer but still in Fraktur-style lettering, the lines below them in script. Other Fraktur-style lettering is enclosed within a heart at the center. Above the heart, a face within a flower bloom appears, with large, trailing tulips extending to either side. At the perimeter, a decorative border of solid bands encloses a running floral design.

Artist unidentified.

The 2-inch grain-painted frame is a twentieth-century addition. The profile is a splay followed by a flat outer edge. The sight edge is reeded. The frame also has raised corner blocks and is joined with through tenons.

Label TextAlthough the artist remains unidentified, this piece's style of execution and text choice indicate that it was created by a schoolmaster in a Mennonite community school in Lower Salford Township in present-day Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It incorporates some of the same motifs used by Andreas Kolb (1749-1811), one of the best known teachers in the area. This unidentified artist's simple border flowers and selection of text have also been noted in other teachers' works. The source of the text has not yet been identified.

Religious dissenters who disavowed infant baptism ("Anabaptists") began immigrating to Pennsylvania in search of religious freedom and economic opportunity in the seventeenth century, coming from areas of present-day Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. An ex-Catholic priest named Menno Simons was instrumental in the growth of Anabaptism in Holland, and ultimately his name was applied to such believers; initially called "Mennists," they later became known as "Mennonites."

By 1703, a number of Mennonites had established permanent residences in Skippack, with later arrivals settling in adjoining Salford, to the north. The settlers made their children's education a priority, and a meetinghouse (or combination schoolhouse and place of worship) was in use in Salford at least as early as 1728. Instruction in reading, writing, and arithmatic were combined with instruction in moral and religious precepts. Writing specimens were meant to be read and copied by students, so they often featured wording from sacred texts, such as hymnbooks and bibles. Mennonite schools were open to pupils of all religious persuasions, so parents were expected to impart more distinctive aspects of their beliefs at home.
InscribedNo transcription of the wording on the piece has been made as of 10/4/2009. A translation, made by Pastor Frederick S. Weiser in July 1999, reads as follows:
"How you can see in the time of spring/So many lovely flowers on the fields/In garden, meadows there come many hands of/floral decor[.]/What will this further teach us?/Answer: everything becomes green to give God glory./How beautiful it is then from youth/If they also become green in discipline and virtue,/In the fear of God and holiness,/in truth and righteousness,/in that the same virtue can/yield more to God's glory./For this fresh Maytime of youth leads,/is soon quickly gone by, to eternity/So gather in the flowers now/of holiness and virtue./So that there eternally the blossom of your/youth will be a little flower./Written the 19th of January in 1810. [Within the heart:] Ponder well, you dear children, and exercise yourselves in God blessedness; do not let the world be an obstacle to your salvation."
ProvenanceEdwa Wise, Pennsylvania; purchased from the preceding by David Wheatcroft, CWF's vendor.