Charaterized by his rich use of color, flat large-billed parrots, and his signature miniature tulip with three-lobed leaves, Christian Mertel excuted more than one Geburts und Taufschein for the Rohland family. In addition to the example illustrated here, Papers for Birth Dayes lists a second birth and baptismal certificate in 1794 for the same family in Lebanon/Londonderry Township, Dauphin County. These two certificates conform to information evidenced in the 1800 Pennsylvania Census record for the Rohland family as well. In this census, Jacob Rohland is listed in Lebanon Township, Dauphin County with four boys, three under 10 and one under 16, and two girls, one under 10 and one under 16. Just as Jacob Rohland would have been 8 years old at the time of this census, any of the other two boys or the youngest girl could have been the subject of the other certificates as well.

Arriving in America in October of 1773, Christian Mertel came from Herborn to Philadelphia on the Crawford. His previous occupation was as a dyer. Mertel shows up again in Dauphin County in 1793, where he was a landowner in Londonderry Township. His estate inventory in 1802 listed "boxes with pictures" attesting to his activity as a fraktur artist. For further information, see Weiser, "Christian Mertel, the 'C M Artist'," Der Reggeboge: Journal of the Pennsylvania German Society, volume 21, 1987, pp. 75-85. See also lot 174.