Lot Essay
George Friederich Speyer emigrated to America in 1752, and worked in Berks, Dauphin, Lancaster, and Northhampton Counties between 1780 and 1803. Like many of his fraktur-drawing peers, Speyer is also thought to have been a schoolmaster, though his extensive surviving papers attest to a significant business as a printer as well. Speyer served in a Berks County regiment during the American Revolution, and is thought to have worked for or with fraktur printer Henrich Otto as well.
The Gerburts und Taufschein illustrated here is characteristic of Speyer's work with its bright pallette, whimsically formed cast of birds, angels, maidens and mer-people, and almost illegible inscriptions. Several similar Gerburts und Taufschein by Speyer are in museum and private collections. These include several birth and baptismal certificates in the collection of The Free Library of Philadelphia and illustrated in Heaney and Weiser, The Pennsylvania German Fraktur of The Free Library of Philadelphia, vol. II (Breinigsville, 1976), the first made for Rachel Kinnis, fig. 107; another for Susanna Hoh, fig. 294; another for Jacob Schneyder, fig. 295; and a finial example for Adam Gruber, fig. 296. A similar Geburts and Taufschein made for Samuel Eschleman was sold Christie's New York, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. George Scott, Jr., Lancaster, Pennsylvania, June 10 and 11, 1994, lot 419.
Elizabeth Rentschler, the daughter of Johann and Catharina Margaretha (Magnin) Rentschler, was born 9 December (?) 1793.
The Gerburts und Taufschein illustrated here is characteristic of Speyer's work with its bright pallette, whimsically formed cast of birds, angels, maidens and mer-people, and almost illegible inscriptions. Several similar Gerburts und Taufschein by Speyer are in museum and private collections. These include several birth and baptismal certificates in the collection of The Free Library of Philadelphia and illustrated in Heaney and Weiser, The Pennsylvania German Fraktur of The Free Library of Philadelphia, vol. II (Breinigsville, 1976), the first made for Rachel Kinnis, fig. 107; another for Susanna Hoh, fig. 294; another for Jacob Schneyder, fig. 295; and a finial example for Adam Gruber, fig. 296. A similar Geburts and Taufschein made for Samuel Eschleman was sold Christie's New York, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. George Scott, Jr., Lancaster, Pennsylvania, June 10 and 11, 1994, lot 419.
Elizabeth Rentschler, the daughter of Johann and Catharina Margaretha (Magnin) Rentschler, was born 9 December (?) 1793.