Lot Essay
Little is known of the artist John Van Minian beyond what is evidenced by the few works documented or attributed to him. These include a marriage record, a birth record, three birth and baptismal certificates, a family record, two drawings and a religous text. Of these, at least two are signed by the artist, at least six are in English, and a small number of fraktur associated with Van Minian are written in German. Van Minian is believed to have worked between 1805 and 1842, and his fraktur are dated from 1789 through 1835, a pre-dating practice common to fraktur artists. His drawings range in geographic location from Berks to Lancaster Counties in Pennsylvania, as well as Baltimore County, Maryland and Dorset, Vermont. Accordingly, the German-inscribed, Dauphin County birth and baptismal certificate illustrated here is a rare example probably by this uncommon artist.
Fraktur attributed and signed by Vin Minian are distinctively designed and inscribed. Often broken into three horizontal registers and three columns, these drawings are generally centered by a rectangular frame into which the relevant information is inscribed. Several Van Minian fraktur are distinguished at each corner by either a banded and inscribed heart or a rectangle inscribed with a verse or filled with a profile portrait bust. In the example offered here, these corner rectangles are filled with full-length profile portraits of women. A drawing attributed to Van Minian and formerly in the Garbisch Collection is centered by a similarly executed and costumed single full-length female profile with near hand at hip and far hand raised holding a flowering branch (see Sotheby Parke-Bernet, November 12, 1974, The Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part III, lot 70). A birth record for Sarah Harley signed by John Van Minian and formerly in the collection of George Horace Lorimer is embellished on each side with a vertical panel of similar meandering two-toned flowers and recognizeable lobed trefoil leaf groups (see Parke-Bernet, Collection of George Horace Lorimer, March 29-31, 1944, lot 390). In addition to these examples, the handwriting style of the birth and baptismal illustrated here is strikingly similar to several other accepted Van Minian fraktur (see Earnest and Earnest, Papers for Birth Dayes: A Guide to the Fraktur Artists and Scriveners (Albuquerque, N.M.), 1989, p.425).
The reverse of this fraktur bears two adhered paper strips as well as a pencil inscription which appears to be 19th century. The paper strips appear to reinforce the upper and lower horizontal edge of the paper and may be removed from a lesson book. The lower strip is inscribed, "Simple Subtraction," and the upper strip is inscribed, "Application 3)If 9876 is multiplied by six thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine what is the.../ 7)A linen draper bought 10 bales of clothe viz No 12 each 367 yards No 345 each 407 [partially missing] years No 678 each 228 yards No 9..." If these strips are original to the document or are related to the artist in some way, they may suggest that Van Minian was, like the majority of Fraktur artists, an itinerant schoolmaster. The pencil inscription in between is not the same hand and reads, "(429) Mrs. [or Mr.] Snyder 12 X [illegible] Dec 1" flat at 2.85" and is probably a phonetic reference to Anna Schneider, the granddaughter of the birth and baptismal's subject, or her husband Frederick, and to framing instructions for this fraktur. These may mean the dimensions, as this certificate is 12 inches across from edge to edge, or the date by which time the framing needed to be done, as well as to the appearance of the finished frame. As the inscription instructs, the frame surrounding this fraktur is a one inch flat frame. The possibility that this inscription refers to the Schneiders' framing a maternal ancestor's birth and baptismal certificate indicates that the document, which was formerly private and hidden, was later publicly displayed speaking volumes to the changing role of fraktur within historically German-American families. It also suggests that while fraktur were not framed at the time of manufacture, it is possible for a fraktur to retain its first, or original frame.
Fraktur attributed and signed by Vin Minian are distinctively designed and inscribed. Often broken into three horizontal registers and three columns, these drawings are generally centered by a rectangular frame into which the relevant information is inscribed. Several Van Minian fraktur are distinguished at each corner by either a banded and inscribed heart or a rectangle inscribed with a verse or filled with a profile portrait bust. In the example offered here, these corner rectangles are filled with full-length profile portraits of women. A drawing attributed to Van Minian and formerly in the Garbisch Collection is centered by a similarly executed and costumed single full-length female profile with near hand at hip and far hand raised holding a flowering branch (see Sotheby Parke-Bernet, November 12, 1974, The Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part III, lot 70). A birth record for Sarah Harley signed by John Van Minian and formerly in the collection of George Horace Lorimer is embellished on each side with a vertical panel of similar meandering two-toned flowers and recognizeable lobed trefoil leaf groups (see Parke-Bernet, Collection of George Horace Lorimer, March 29-31, 1944, lot 390). In addition to these examples, the handwriting style of the birth and baptismal illustrated here is strikingly similar to several other accepted Van Minian fraktur (see Earnest and Earnest, Papers for Birth Dayes: A Guide to the Fraktur Artists and Scriveners (Albuquerque, N.M.), 1989, p.425).
The reverse of this fraktur bears two adhered paper strips as well as a pencil inscription which appears to be 19th century. The paper strips appear to reinforce the upper and lower horizontal edge of the paper and may be removed from a lesson book. The lower strip is inscribed, "Simple Subtraction," and the upper strip is inscribed, "Application 3)If 9876 is multiplied by six thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine what is the.../ 7)A linen draper bought 10 bales of clothe viz No 12 each 367 yards No 345 each 407 [partially missing] years No 678 each 228 yards No 9..." If these strips are original to the document or are related to the artist in some way, they may suggest that Van Minian was, like the majority of Fraktur artists, an itinerant schoolmaster. The pencil inscription in between is not the same hand and reads, "(429) Mrs. [or Mr.] Snyder 12 X [illegible] Dec 1" flat at 2.85" and is probably a phonetic reference to Anna Schneider, the granddaughter of the birth and baptismal's subject, or her husband Frederick, and to framing instructions for this fraktur. These may mean the dimensions, as this certificate is 12 inches across from edge to edge, or the date by which time the framing needed to be done, as well as to the appearance of the finished frame. As the inscription instructs, the frame surrounding this fraktur is a one inch flat frame. The possibility that this inscription refers to the Schneiders' framing a maternal ancestor's birth and baptismal certificate indicates that the document, which was formerly private and hidden, was later publicly displayed speaking volumes to the changing role of fraktur within historically German-American families. It also suggests that while fraktur were not framed at the time of manufacture, it is possible for a fraktur to retain its first, or original frame.