Pennsylvania
Fraktur was an illuminated folk art created by the Pennsylvania Dutch (also
known Pennsylvanian German). Most work of this type was created between 1740
and 1860 by teachers or pastors seeking to supplement their meager salaries. The
manuscripts, scribed in ink, were sometimes colored with watercolor. The
illuminated book below is an example of Vorschriften (writing), single page
birth and baptismal certificates, marriage and house blessings, book plates,
and floral and figurative scenes were referred to as Taufscheine.
Pictured
below in color is the work of Johannes Ernst Spangenberg (1755-1814) a Northampton
County Pennsylvania schoolmaster. He was much in demand for his Fraktur and was
known as the “Easton Bible Artist.”
Fraktur
also refers to a Latin Blacklettering text style created in the early 16th
century by Hieronymus Andreae for the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I for a new
series of books. Blow in black and white is an example of a Bible done in this
manner.
Original
preserved examples of Fraktur Americana folk art can be seen at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as in
private collections.
