Lot Essay
For a similar fraktur Geburts und Taufschein, see Weiser, p.87 and Christie's, Important American Furniture, Folk Art and Decorative Arts, October 23, 1993, lot 112.
This artist and fraktur are recorded in The Winterthur Library: Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, NEH 485, 13a - 14a.
Maryland census records for the decade 1830 - 1840 in Frederick County show a David Beall (no other spellings of the name other than this Anglicized version of Biehl) living with 3 free white males and 6 free white females in his household. Of the free white males living in Beall's home, one, aged bewteen 30 and 40, must be Beall himself, who would have been 36 if he is the same Biehl apparent on Deisert's Geburts und Taufschein. The two others males, both children, are aged between 5 and 10 and under 5. The age of Johannes Biehl, the subject of this fraktur, would have been about 3 when the census was taken. Likewise, of the women in Beall's household, one, also aged between 30 and 40, was presumably Elizabeth Biehl, David's wife; the others, a girl under 5, two girls between 5 and 10 and two girls between 10 and 15 were probably Beall's other children, though the possibility exists, particulalry with the older girls that they were either relatives or indentured servants.
FURTHER CLEANED UP FOOTNOTE TO FOLLOW.
This artist and fraktur are recorded in The Winterthur Library: Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, NEH 485, 13a - 14a.
Maryland census records for the decade 1830 - 1840 in Frederick County show a David Beall (no other spellings of the name other than this Anglicized version of Biehl) living with 3 free white males and 6 free white females in his household. Of the free white males living in Beall's home, one, aged bewteen 30 and 40, must be Beall himself, who would have been 36 if he is the same Biehl apparent on Deisert's Geburts und Taufschein. The two others males, both children, are aged between 5 and 10 and under 5. The age of Johannes Biehl, the subject of this fraktur, would have been about 3 when the census was taken. Likewise, of the women in Beall's household, one, also aged between 30 and 40, was presumably Elizabeth Biehl, David's wife; the others, a girl under 5, two girls between 5 and 10 and two girls between 10 and 15 were probably Beall's other children, though the possibility exists, particulalry with the older girls that they were either relatives or indentured servants.
FURTHER CLEANED UP FOOTNOTE TO FOLLOW.