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Lot Essay
With its central astragal panel inscribed 'Mal Ower' and dated 1807, the blanket chest illustrated here may bear important clues to the manufacture of this distinctive regional vernacular form. Traditionally assigned a Dauphin County point of origin, the chest illustrated here is among the earliest known of the group. A chest made for Efa Kis is dated 1806 and is the earliest.
Descended almost since its making in the Rife Family of Lancaster and Franklin Counties, Pennsylvania, the chest illustrated here is linked by marriage to one of the important early Southeastern Pennsylvania Mennonite families. The three earliest Rife Reiff brothers, Hans (c.1685-1750), John Jacob (1694-1756) and Abraham (1696-1763/4), arrived in Philadelphia in 1717 most likely from the German Palatinate and soon moved west. Hans Reiff, the patriarch of the family line in which the chest illustrated here descended, settled briefly in Lower Salford Township, Montgomery County, where he and his brother Abraham were among the founding members of the Salford Mennonite Church of the Franconia Mennonite Conference. Hans Reiff is named in the deed for land on which the congregation was founded (Lehman, "Descendants of the Three Immigrant Mennonite Reiff Brothers of Europe and Pennsylvania," Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage (April 1999), pp. 11-23). Hans Reiff's descendants ultimately settled in Franklin and Cumberland Counties, as well as south in Washington County, Maryland and into the Valley of Virginia. Reiff's son, John Jacob (1733-1819), moved from Rapho Township, Lancaster County to Greene Township, Franklin County in 1792.
In 1827, Hans Reiff's grandson, Henry Rife (1785-1862) married Mary Over. A Mary Over was born in approximately the same year that the chest illustrated here is dated in Peters Township, Franklin County. It is possible that the name inscribed on the chest illustrated here is a more Germanic fraktur-lettered interpretation of Mary Rife's maiden name. Interestingly, though entirely coincidentally given the prevalence of the name, Mary Over had a cousin, also in Franklin County, named Mary Cryder. A similar chest from this group inscribed in Germanic lettering MERI KREIDR 1824 was sold in these Rooms 23 October 1993, lot 59. Peters Township is not far from Letterkenny Township where Henry and Mary (Over) Rife settled and where members of the Salem United Brethren Church.
Several blanket chests are directly related to the example illustrated here and include the following forms. An example inscribed with the name Madlena Deynier and dated 1816 is illustrated in Fabian, The Pennsylvania German Decorated Chest (New York, 1978), p. 174, fig. 177. Two other chests from this group identified by Fabian include one for Jacob Zimmer (1811) and Susan Kifer (1813). Two more blanket chests from this group were Sold in these Rooms, the first, inscribed Balle Farne and dated 1821, on 1 October 1988, lot 350; the second, inscribed Meri Kreider and dated 1824, on 23 October 1993, lot 59. Two further examples of this group were displayed at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Antiques Show, April 1999.
Descended almost since its making in the Rife Family of Lancaster and Franklin Counties, Pennsylvania, the chest illustrated here is linked by marriage to one of the important early Southeastern Pennsylvania Mennonite families. The three earliest Rife Reiff brothers, Hans (c.1685-1750), John Jacob (1694-1756) and Abraham (1696-1763/4), arrived in Philadelphia in 1717 most likely from the German Palatinate and soon moved west. Hans Reiff, the patriarch of the family line in which the chest illustrated here descended, settled briefly in Lower Salford Township, Montgomery County, where he and his brother Abraham were among the founding members of the Salford Mennonite Church of the Franconia Mennonite Conference. Hans Reiff is named in the deed for land on which the congregation was founded (Lehman, "Descendants of the Three Immigrant Mennonite Reiff Brothers of Europe and Pennsylvania," Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage (April 1999), pp. 11-23). Hans Reiff's descendants ultimately settled in Franklin and Cumberland Counties, as well as south in Washington County, Maryland and into the Valley of Virginia. Reiff's son, John Jacob (1733-1819), moved from Rapho Township, Lancaster County to Greene Township, Franklin County in 1792.
In 1827, Hans Reiff's grandson, Henry Rife (1785-1862) married Mary Over. A Mary Over was born in approximately the same year that the chest illustrated here is dated in Peters Township, Franklin County. It is possible that the name inscribed on the chest illustrated here is a more Germanic fraktur-lettered interpretation of Mary Rife's maiden name. Interestingly, though entirely coincidentally given the prevalence of the name, Mary Over had a cousin, also in Franklin County, named Mary Cryder. A similar chest from this group inscribed in Germanic lettering MERI KREIDR 1824 was sold in these Rooms 23 October 1993, lot 59. Peters Township is not far from Letterkenny Township where Henry and Mary (Over) Rife settled and where members of the Salem United Brethren Church.
Several blanket chests are directly related to the example illustrated here and include the following forms. An example inscribed with the name Madlena Deynier and dated 1816 is illustrated in Fabian, The Pennsylvania German Decorated Chest (New York, 1978), p. 174, fig. 177. Two other chests from this group identified by Fabian include one for Jacob Zimmer (1811) and Susan Kifer (1813). Two more blanket chests from this group were Sold in these Rooms, the first, inscribed Balle Farne and dated 1821, on 1 October 1988, lot 350; the second, inscribed Meri Kreider and dated 1824, on 23 October 1993, lot 59. Two further examples of this group were displayed at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Antiques Show, April 1999.