Tag Archives: David Kriebel

A Little Flower Embodies the Wisdom that was Forever with God

4 Replies

David Kriebel (1787-1849), one of the best known of the Schwenkfelder frakturists, created the above flower-filled illuminated manuscript on or about June 1,1806, and chose to include an accompanying reference to flowers “Ein Blümlein ist die Weißheit” or “A little flower embodies the wisdom” from the first Schwenkfelder Hymnal ever printed in America (1762).[1] The words are from line one of verse eleven of Hymn 115 EIN Blum ist auf der Heyde...[2] and initially seem to have been almost an afterthought, squeezed in at the very bottom on either side of a woven basket that holds the floral centerpiece of the work. Yet, they are a major component of the entire concept of this Fraktur. Translated the text reads:

The first of June. A little flower embodies the wisdom
that was forever with God; came forth in Christ as man: Its
strength vanquishes death. In the Year 1806. [3]

Susanna Hübner (1750-1818), another renowned Schwenkfelder frakturist, lived with her brother Abraham (also a frakturist) and his family on the old homestead in Worcester Township, Montgomery County, Pa. after their father’s death, and made illuminated manuscripts on various occasions for all of his children. We know precisely when she made the following New Years Greeting for her nephew Jacob Hübner for she wrote in pencil on the verso of the manuscript: “Geschrieben Ein Tausend Acht Hundert Zehn vor Jacob Hübner. Zum Neuen Jahr. von Susanna Hübner” or “Written in 1810 for Jacob Hübner. [To be given] for New Years [1811].”

She, too, chose verses from Hymn 115 of the Schwenkfelder Neu=Eingerichtetes Gesang=Buch of 1762, namely seven, eight, nine, as well as all of verse eleven to enhance her floral New Year Greeting of 1811 to Jacob.   Translated they read:

[Hymn] 115 Mel. O Generous God upon the Throne (43)

“A little Flower blooms upon the Meadows…”

[7.] Thus spoke the bride in the Song of Songs: My beloved is handsome. The noble grains of green grass, the flavorful marjoram shall I conceal between my breasts and carry upon my bosom. They will sweeten all malodors and awaken a great strength within me, everlasting joy and desire.

[8.] The flower is planted within the Holy City of God wherein it dwells and spreads its delightful scent. Like the Palm-oil tree and cypresses it has grown tall, and sat upon the throne of God. Who can measure its greatness? He who believes builds securely thereon.

[Within the heart] Partake of your joys and desires remembering that you must one day die.

[9.] As it stood in Jericho, the most beautiful of all the rose shoots blossomed far more beautifully than all the rest. Its odor is delightfully sweet like flowing honey, the scent of which flows into the heart of the believer. The blossom is full of strength.

[11.] A little flower embodies the wisdom that was forever with God; came forth in Christ as man: Its strength vanquishes death. It is like the seasonal grapes that bring joy to my grieved heart. No one will ever rob from me that which I grasped for in faith believing, neither now nor in eternity.[4]

The Schwenkfelder hymnal printed in America in 1762 is organized into two main parts, one dealing with the Trinity, and the other with God’s creation, and man’s relationship to His Sovereign King. Its editor Rev. Christopher Schultz took great care and time to annotate the hymn verses with Biblical references so that those who sang these texts would know the sources on which they were based.

Hymn 115 is one of four hymns found in Part I, Section XVIII that features songs about Jesus’ childhood, and growing up; His humanity; and His experiences at age twelve in the temple. [5] Rev. Schultz includes two citations that clearly point us to the identity of the “The little flower that embodies wisdom,” namely Hebrews 8:1 which describes the high priest or Jesus who sits at the right hand of the Majesty of Creation, and Proverbs 8:22-30 where it is implied that it is Jesus who was not only with God before anything ever was but shall ever be the delight of His Father throughout eternity. It’s when we take a look at all of Hymn 115’s verses and annotations, however, that we acknowledge how intimately familiar David Kriebel and Susanna Hübner must have been with the symbolic associations between the floral references and the Jesus-God-Man, and that the images of the flowers in their illuminated manuscripts were intended as a personification thereof.

[Hymn] 115. Mel. O Generous God upon the Throne (43)

[1.] “A little flower blooms upon the meadows, Jesus my Savior, Jesus my Savior. I have my joy in Him, and would like to be with Him. I wish to secure Him in my heart, and always have Him abide there. My wish: to leave everything on Earth behind; wander the narrow paths. My whole being yearns for Him. *Ps. 45, 3.

*Ps. 45, 3. [Psalm 45:3 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. KJV]

2. The flower for which I long has no equal upon the earth*. Jesus, My God and Savior up above in the Kingdom of Heaven: In Him the flower reigns. The living sap flows from Him, and is glorified in God. Solomon in all his glory was never so powerful. *Apoc 5,12.

*Apoc 5, 12. [Revelations 5:12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. KJV]

3. He sings in the Song of Songs: I am a Rose in the field, entirely encircled by thorns. Since I am now risen,+ I am placed upon God’s* throne. My bridegroom came to me: Here all will be brought low, but as I adorn and array them, they shall triumph in my power.

*Phil. 2, 9 [Phillippians 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:…KJV]

+ Joh 12, 32 [John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.KJV]

4. Just like grass or a flower, all must perish: All flesh must die. Alone the glory will remain that arose in the Word* of God, and shall remain forever. It is my desire to attain this. He who wants to rejoice with Him there will carry the cross and sorrow here.

*1 Pet. 1, 24,25. [1 Peter 1:24-25 24For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. KJV]

Esa. 11, 1. [Isaiah 11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:…KJV]

5. If I now sacrifice my life through death with Him on the cross, He will give me His kingdom, and eternal life with God. For this I want to strive, O most beloved Savior mine. I want to bring my sacrifice, and through death attain life so that I might be with You.

6. I can’t reach heaven on my own: Therefore, I want to join You. To You I direct my plea: Have mercy on me, Jesus, my Savior and God! Be with the poor, and save me, poor one, from sin, hell, and death.

7.Thus spoke the bride in the Song of Songs: My beloved is handsome. The noble grains of green grass, the flavorful marjoram shall I conceal between my breasts and carry upon my bosom. They will sweeten all malodors and awaken a great strength within me, everlasting joy and desire.

8. The flower is planted within the Holy City of God wherein it dwells and spreads its delightful scent. Like the Palm-oil tree and cypresses it has grown tall, and sat upon the throne of God. Who can measure its greatness? He who believes builds securely thereon.

*Cant. 1,3. [Song of Solomon 1:3 Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee. KJV]

[Within the heart] Partake of your joys and desires remembering that you must one day die.

9. As it stood in Jericho, the most beautiful of all the rose shoots blossomed far more beautifully than all the rest. Its odor is delightfully sweet like flowing honey, the scent of which flows into the heart of the believer. The blossom is full of strength.*1 Joh. 2, 27.

1 Joh. 2, 27. [1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. KJV].

10. The priest, exalted and wise, is like a beautiful rose, which in paradise has grown great within God; like a lily that has grown tall upon the water. His mercy is generous and plentiful. His power knows no end or direction. Strengthen us o Lord Jesus Christ!
*Hebr. 8,1

*Hebr. 8,1 [Hebrews 8:1 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;…KJV]

11. A little flower embodies the wisdom that was forever with God; came forth in Christ as man: Its strength vanquishes death. It is like the seasonal grapes that bring joy to my grieved heart. No one will ever rob from me that which I grasped for in faith believing, neither now nor in eternity. * Prov. 8, 22=30

* Prov. 8, 22=30. [Proverbs 8:22-30 22 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: 26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. 27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: 28 When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: 29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: 30 Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; KJV] [6]

ENDNOTES
[1] Neu-eingerichtetes Gesang-Buch….Germantown, Pa.: gedruckt bey Christoph Saur, auf Kosten vereinigter Freunden, Hymn 115, line 1, verse 11, p. 78.

[2] EIN Blum ist auf der Heyde or A Little Flower Blooms Upon the Meadows.

[3] D 1ten Junÿ | Ein Blümlein ist | die Weisheit, die E= | wig ware beÿ Gott, | Ging auf in Christi |Menschheit, ihr krafft | vertreibt den Tode… | Im Jahr 1806

[4] [Hymn] 115 Mel. O reicher GOtt im T.[hrone] (43)
EIn* Blum ist auf der Heyde…

[7.] Mein Geliebter ist schöne; die | Braut im Hoh’nlied sprach, der Edel | Spica grüne, Der Marjan wolgeschmack, | in Busen will ichs stecken, tragen auf | meiner Brust, all’n Gestanck soll’s + in mir ein Krafft erwecken, Ewige | Freud und Lust. + abschrecken,

[8.] Die Blum ist eingesetzet, in Heil’ger | Gottes Stadt: Da ihr Geruch ergetzet: Da=| rinnen Wohnung hat, wie Palm=oel=Baum, | Cypressen ist sie hoch g’wachsen auf in Thron | Gott’s eingesessen. Wer kan ihr Krafft er= | messen? Der Glaub sich baut fest drauf.

[Within the heart] Bey aller | deiner freud und Lust | Gedencke daß du | sterben must

[9.] Wie zu Jericho g’standen, Die | Schönsten Rosen=Stock=all Blumen macht’s | zu schanden, wenns ihre Blum ausstreckt, Der | Geruch ist gar süsse, lieblich wie Honig | Safft; ihr G’ruch thut sich ergiessen, ins | Gläubig Hertz einfliessen, die Blum | ist voller Krafft.

[11.] Ein Blümlein ist die Weißheit | Die Ewig war beÿ Gott, ging auf in Chri= |sti Menschheit: ihr Krafft vertreibt Den | Tod. Sie is wie zeitig Trauben, die mein | krankes Hertz erfreut, Ergriff ich Die im | Glauben es wirds mirs niemand Rauben, | jetzt noch in Ewigkeit.

[5] Part 1, Section VIII reads in German: Von der Jugend, und Gewächse Christi, An seiner H. Menschheit, und seiner Offenbahrung im zwölften Jahr

[6] [Hymn] 115. [Mel. O reicher GOtt im T[hrone] [Melody] (43)

[1] EIN Blum ist auf der Heyde, Jesus, der HErre mein :/: in Ihm hab’ ich mein Freude, wollte gern bey Ihm seyn. Will Ihn in mein Hertz fassen, und stets behalten drin: Auf Erd alles verlassen; wandeln die enge Strassen: Nach Ihm steht all mein Sinn. *Ps. 45, 3.

2. Die Blum so ich begehre, hat nicht auf Erd Ihr* gleich; Jesus, mein GOtt und HErre, droben im Himmelreich; darin die Blum regiret: Von Ihm geht aus der Safft: In GOtt glorificiret. Also war nicht gezieret, Salomo an der Krafft. *Apoc 5, 12.

3.Im hohen Lied Er singet: Ich bin ein Ros’ im Feld; mit Dornen gantz umringet: Nun in Gotts * Thron gestellt; da Ich bin aufgestiegen: + Mein Gespons zu mir fuhr. Hie wirds auch niederliegen: Doch in meiner Krafft siegen, wenn Ich sie schmück und zier.
*Phil. 2, 9
+ Joh 12, 32

4. Sonst mus alles verderben, wie Graß oder ein Blum: Alles Fleisch muß absterben; und bleibt allein der Ruhm, dem* Wort GOttes aufgangen; und bleibt in Ewigkeit. Nach dem thut mich verlangen: Wer dort mit Ihm will prangen, trag hie vor Creutz und Leid.
*1 Pet. 1, 24,25.
Esa. 11, 1

5. Opffer ich jetzt mein Leben, mit Ihm in Creutz und Tod, Sein Reich will Er mir geben, Ewig zu seyn bey GOtt. Darnach, so will ich ringen, O liebster HErre mein! Mein Opffer will ich bringen: Vom Tod ins Leben dringen, daß ich bey Dir mög seyn.

6. Den Himmel zu erlangen, vermag ich selber nicht: Drum will ich Dir anhangen; zu Dir noch thun mein Bitt: Du wollest dich erbarmen, JEsu, mein Herr und GOtt! umfahen mit den Armen, und erlösen mich Armen, von Sünd, auch Höll und Tod.

7. Mein Geliebter ist schöne, die Braut im Hoh’nlied sprach; der edel Spica grüne, der Marjan wolgeschmack. In Busen will ichs stecken, tragen auf meiner Brust; all’n Gestanck soll’s abschrecken: In mir ein Krafft erwecken; ewige Freud und Lust.

8. Die Blum ist eingesetzet, in heil’ger GOttes Stadt; da Ihr Geruch ergetzet: Darinnen Wohnung hat. Wie Palm=Oel=Baum, Cypresse, ist sie hoch g’wachsen auf; in Thron GOtts eingesessen. Wer kann Ihr Krafft ermessen? Der Glaub sich bau’t fest drauf. *Cant. 1,3.

9. Wie zu Jericho g’standen, die schönsten Rosen=Stöck: All Blumen macht’s zu schanden, wenn’s Ihre Blum austreckt. Der Geruch ist gar süsse, lieblich wie Honig=Safft. [78] Ihr G’ruch thut sich ergiessen, ins gläubig Hertz einfliessen. Die Blum ist voller Krafft. * 1 Joh. 2, 27.

10. Der Priester, hoch und Weise, ist wie ein schöne Ros’; der in dem Paradeise in GOtt ist worden groß; wie am Wasser ein Lilie, hoch aufgewachsen ist. Sein Gnad ist reich und viele, Sein Krafft ohn End und Ziele. Stärch uns, Herr JEsu Christ! *Hebr. 8, 1

11. Ein Blümlein ist die Weißheit, die ewig war bey GOtt; ging auf in Christi Menschheit: Ihr Krafft vertreibt den Tod. Sie ist wie zeitig Trauben, die mein kranck’s Hertz erfreut. Ergreiff ich die im Glauben, es wird mir’s niemand rauben, jetzt noch in Ewigkeit. * Prov. 8, 22=30.

SOURCES

Dennis Moyer. Fraktur Writings and Folk Art Drawings of the Schwenkfelder Library Collection. Kutztown, Pa.: Pennsylvania German Society, 1997, 85; Fig. 4-83: 117.

Neu-eingerichtetes Gesang-Buch, in sich haltende eine Sammlung mehrenteils alter schöner lehr=reicher und erbaulicher Lieder…Germantown: gedruckt bey Christoph Saur, auf Kosten vereinigter Freunden. 1762, p. 78. Accessed 11/1/2016 http://bit.ly/2gGF5yC.

Rev. Christopher Schultz. Historische Anmerkungen [1750-1789]. Manuscript housed at the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center, Pennsburg, Pa. [Schultz kept the historical commentary up to 1775].

Allen Anders Seipt. Schwenkfelder Hymnology and the Sources of the First Schwenkfelder Hymn-Book Printed in America. Philadelphia: Americana Germanica Press, 1909, 96-110.

John Joseph Stoudt. Early Pennsylvania Arts and Crafts. New York: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1964,
Fig. 306: 307-310; Fig. 341: 345.

Philipp Wackernagel. Das deutsche Kirchenlied…5ter Band. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1877.

Winterthur Research Fellow, Moravian and Pennsylvania Dutch Material Culture, 2016-2017

Every year Winterthur provides fellowships to a select group of scholars for research 
in their chosen areas of study in social and cultural history, including material culture, architecture, decorative arts, design, consumer culture, garden and landscape studies, Shaker studies, travel and tourism, the Atlantic World, and objects in literature. ~ Winterthur Research Program  Thanks to a short-term research fellowship at Winterthur I have been able to study rare books in the Winterthur Museum Library Collection of Printed Books and Periodicals; objects in the Winterthur Museum Collection; and manuscripts in the Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera.  All has contributed to my research for a book in progress Heavenly Fraktur: How Fraktur Influenced Pennsylvania German and Moravian Material Culture. This blog post is based on that research. My sincere thank you to all at Winterthur who have made this fellowship possible.

My thanks also to Dave Luz, Candace Perry, Dr. Allen Viehmeyer, and Hunt Schenkel of the Schwenkfelder Library & Bob Wood and Bill Dayley of the Goschenhoppen Historians.

A Little Flower Embodies the Wisdom that was Forever with God Blog Post including transcriptions; translations; and photo images © 2016 Del-Louise Moyer.

Schwenkfelder Eighteenth & Nineteenth Century Textile Samplers and Writing Samples

8 Replies

Sampler motifs harken back to the Renaissance when all levels of society satisfied their love of ornamentation with decorative textiles. Professional embroiderers of clothing, bed hangings, and furniture coverings advertised their work and colors to prospective clients on linen cloths. From this came the custom-made samplers for individual use. These were the forerunners of the Pennsylvania Dutch textile samplers. Along with figurative examples, alphabets, one’s name, initials, and dates were added as personalized features. Most were worked in colored silk embroidery on a ground of plain weave bleached linen.  From about the 1520s to the end of the eighteenth century, pattern books played an important role in France, England, and Germany, recording pattern designs for use in embroidery, knitting, embroidery on knotted net, and lace making. Some of these designs were incorporated into the European-made samplers that the Pennsylvania Dutch brought with them when they immigrated, and were passed on from generation to generation within family groups, religious communities, and regional areas.

Tandy and Charles Hersh in their 1991 Samplers of the Pennsylvania Germans define a sampler as a “textile used to record and practice embroidery motifs, stitches and alphabets for future use.”[i]

Four periods of development are identified:

  1. Transition 1683-1776
  2. Refinement 1777-1809
  3. Continuity & Change 1810-1860
  4. Survival 1860-Present [ii]

During these four periods sampler makers positioned the motifs in four different ways:

  1. randomly without plan;
  2. in rows according to size;
  3. uniformly around a centrally aligned figure(s);
  4. and in mirror-images aligned along a horizontally or vertically positioned central line. [iii]

In southeastern Pennsylvania a teenage Pennsylvania Dutch girl traditionally learned how to make cross-stitch samplers at home using her mother’s, aunt’s, cousin’s, sister’s or other older family members’ sampler(s) as a template. Besides the cross-stitch, the Schwenkfelder [iv] sampler makers are known to have used other techniques as well: double back stitch, geometric satin stitch, and chain stitch. [v]

Maria Schultz (1785-1841) was a Schwenkfelder, and the sewn together two-piece sampler she made (ILL.1), one with smaller motifs in 1798-1799, and one with larger designs in 1801

was the very first purchase of the Goschenhoppen Folklife Museum, [vi] and the beginning of the present collection [at Green Lane, Pennsylvania]. Its prime importance, beyond its fineness as a piece of early Dutch folk art, is its importance as an evidence of the folk cultural process of acculturation, between traditional groups within the larger Pennsylvania Dutch folk culture.[vii]

A few of the motifs on Maria’s sampler can be traced back to a random sampler (ILL. 2) Maria’s great grandmother Anna Wagner (ACWW 1733) brought to America from Saxony when she immigrated to Worcester township, Montgomery county (then Philadelphia county) in 1737. Stitches she used include cross-stitch, back stitch, and geometric satin stitch.

In 1778 Christina Wagner, Maria’s aunt, and Anna’s granddaughter created a rowed sampler (ILL. 3) , copying six of the thirty-one motifs from her grandmother’s sampler. Maria and her two sisters Christina and Rosina, also residents of Worcester Township, used their aunt’s sampler as a guide. Maria was thirteen, and Christina sixteen when each made her first sampler in 1798-1799: Christina chose a row format (ILL. 4a)  like her aunt’s, whereas Maria placed her figures randomly on the canvas (ILL. 1, Top). However, both copied many of her motifs, including the small designs and letters in rows three to five and the bottom row with a cartouche enclosing their initials. Most notable of all is the corner decorative figure that can also be found on a Swiss or German sampler housed at the Textilmuseum in St. Gallen, Switzerland Inv. No. 20046, and scarcely changed in Christina Wagner’s nor subsequently in her nieces’ and other Schwenkfelder samplers (See illustrations in this post: Christina Wagner: ILL. 3; Maria Schultz: ILL. 1, upper sampler; Christina Schultz: ILL. 4a ).

Melchior and Salome (née Wagner) Schultz, Maria, Christina, and Rosina Schultz’s mother and father, took Regina Hübner into their home after her parents died. Her two younger cousins borrowed freely from the random sampler (ILL. 6) Regina had made in 1794 at age seventeen : three carnations; a crown with three diamonds; the seven flowers and vase; three tulips in a vase; five cross flowers; rooster, small corner flower, large corner flower, a chair, a table with two bowls, along with a creative addition of a cruet, and dog standing on the lower table shelf. Stitches they used include cross stitch, double back stitch and chain stitch (See illustrations in this post: Regina Hübner: ILL. 6; Maria Schultz: ILL. 1, lower sampler; Christina Schultz: ILL. 4b; Rosina Schultz: ILL. 7).

In 1809 Rosina, the youngest girl of the Schultz family, made a random sampler (ILL. 7) of over one-hundred motifs, many of which replicated her sisters’ designs, and which carried the sampler tradition into the next generation, serving as a template for her three daughters, Salome, Maria and Rosina Kriebel. Sara Schultz, daughter of Rev. Christopher and Susanna

Yeakle Schultz, a peer and cousin to the Kriebel girls, did not make her home in Worcester township, Montgomery county like most of her Schultz relatives, but rather lived in Berks county. Here she created a random sampler (ILL. 8) on paper at age seventeen in which she combined six of her mother’s sampler motifs with ones from her Aunt Christina Wagner. She also added designs from her other Schultz kin of Worcester Township, along with those in the northeast Berks Franconia Mennonite Area. [viii]   Such borrowed designs, also known as signature motifs, inspired other Schwenkfelder sampler makers, who repeatedly and faithfully borrowed the very same images, sometimes creating variants thereof, in cross-, back-, and chain stitches from ca. 1809 to 1875.

The Schwenkfelder tendency to borrow, replicate, and create alphabets and variant designs in their textile samplers is repeated in their illuminated manuscripts on paper as well, the ABCs and visual motifs being common to both mediums. Printed writing samples such as J. J. Brunner’s 1767 Vorschrift zu nützlicher Nachahmung…[ix] or A Useful Writing Sample for Copying… were available to the general public, and demonstrated several variants of the same Alphabet. Schoolmasters used such works as references when creating writing samples for their students. These same alphabet variants appear in textile samplers, and change according to regional cultural influences and time period. The Schwenkfelder samplers exclusively used the alphabet that appears on the sampler (ILL. 2) that Anna Wagner brought with her to Pennsylvania in 1737 right up to1875 when Regina Schultz used it in her first sampler. [x]

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A school teacher before becoming a minister, David Kriebel (1787-1849), one of the best known of the Schwenkfelder frakturists, made a writing sampler or Vorschrift „Jerusalem Du Gottes Stadt or Jerusalem You City of God [xi] for Abraham Anders on February 24, 1805. Like Brunner, Kriebel intentionally demonstrated several ways to present the same letter(s) in Fraktur script for his pupil to imitate. Abraham would build upon this, and eventually use his quill, like the Schwenkfelder young ladies used their needles, to create a new design variant.

Susanna Hübner (1750-1818), another renowned Schwenkfelder frakturist, lived with her brother Abraham (also a frakturist) and his family on the old homestead after their father’s death, and made illuminated manuscripts for all of the children. She found David Kriebel’s illuminated initial “J” of “Jerusalem” from the Anders Vorschrift so appealing that she devised a near replica of it as the initial letter “J” for her nephew Jacob’s Christian name in an illuminated manuscript Jacob Aber Zog Seinen Weg or Jacob Went His Own Way (Genesis 32: 1-2) that she created for him on April 2, 1808.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We find the same tendency in Schwenkfelder frakturist families as we do among the Schwenkfelder textile sampler maker families. Close proximity encouraged relatives to borrow each others’ designs and ideas, but in a creative manner. Susanna Hübner made her niece Maria an illuminated manuscript to the text Maria Hat Das Gute Theil Erwählet. Das soll nicht von ihr genommen werden… or Maria Has Made the Right Choice. That Should Not Be Taken From Her… (St. Luke 10:42) on December 4, 1808.

Maria faithfully copied a portion of her Aunt Susanna’s gift Maria Hat Das Gute Theil Erwählet. Das soll nicht..,.using the same color scheme for the text, and the same vase of tulips. However, in the process she respositioned both, and added a bird perched on a very original elongated flowering tree, thus creating an entirely new variant based on her Aunt’s original.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On December 16, 1804 David Kriebel made special gift for Susanna Kriebel surrounding the text Gott hat in meinen Tagen mich väterlich getragen or During my Life God Has Supported Me in a Fatherly Way [xii] with floral designs reminiscent, in the opinion of some, of central and eastern Europe. Dennis K. Moyer in Fraktur Writings and Folk Art Drawings of the Schwenkfelder Library Collection found that “the color and motifs that he chose seem to imitate a quality and style similar to the art and textiles of the Near East. Perhaps the ideas for the design and color were drawn from printed or woven textiles.” [xiii]

The similarities between the vertically-oriented drawing (bookplate?) Susanna Hübner made for her niece Susanna and the rectangularly conceived religious text framed in a dense floral border that David Kriebel created for Susanna Kriebel are obvious. Hübner borrows profusely from Kriebel, but lightens up the density of his flower-patterned periphery by adding mustard yellow to the darker blue and red colors, as well as by interspersing feather-like leaves among the floral foliage. Her multi-rayed star is more vibrant and takes on a three-dimensional energy because of the circular background rays. A brilliant addition is the potted floral bouquet that Aunt Susanna places in the center of the picture above her niece’s name. It is so geometrically conceived that it could easily be included in a textile sampler.

 In 1818, Maria Hübner rethought the drawing her Aunt Susanna had made for her sister, deleting the name, but keeping the motifs almost exactly intact. She chose a more subdued
pastel palette of colors , and added two flowering vine plants, one above the other on the right-side margin of the leaf. The drawing is a tribute to her Schwenkfelder heritage, a reconceived amalgam of friends’ and family’s designs in a color scheme of her generation.

Whether the medium was textile or paper, the Schwenkfelder artists, with needle and quill, were imitating and transforming designs and alphabets from what they had available in their time and place. By recycling these visual motifs and texts, they extended the cultural life of their community for generations to come. In the eighteenth century one expected to find the Pennsylvania Dutch girl’s sampler in her sewing basket, ever ready with the designs she could choose for her sewing and embroidery needs. As time progressed, the purpose of the sampler changed, and became more ornamental than practical. What used to be tucked away, was now framed and hung on the wall. The same is true of illuminated manuscripts that originally were kept away from view taped to the lid of one’s dower chest, and/or safely put away in a drawer or folio Bible. Labeling them folk art, and promoting their commercial potential as decorative wall accents has replaced their cultural value as the Pennsylvania Dutchman’s private expression of his love of God articulated through art.

ENDNOTES

[i] Tandy and Charles Hersh,. Samplers of the Pennsylvania Germans. Birdsboro, PA: Pennsylvania German Society, vol. XXV, 1991, 14.

[ii] Ibid, 47.

[iii] Ibid, 14.

[iv] The Schwenkfelders, followers of Kaspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig (1490-1561), were severely persecuted for their non-orthodox beliefs. Fleeing in 1726 from oppression in Silesia , they were first welcomed by Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf on his estate at Berthelsdorf and Herrnhut in Saxony. This proved to be a temporary home.   From 1731 to 1737 small bands emigrated to Pennsylvania where they settled in the Goschenhoppen, and Skippack areas among the Mennonites, Lutherans, and Reformed who had also settled in this part of Montgomery county (then Philadelphia county) around the same time. All of these settlers transferred a bit of their cultural heritage to southeastern Pennsylvania, some of which can be said to be common to all, and some of which can be recognized as unique to one group or the other.

[v] Dorothy D. McCoach. n. d. Conservation Report for Maria Schultz Sampler 1798, 1799, 1801 (Project #: 01.103.A), n.p., pp. 1,2.

[vi] The Goschenhoppen Historians, Inc., presently celebrating the 50th anniversary of their incorporation, continue to identify, preserve, and disseminate the Pennsylvania German folk culture and history of the Goschenhoppen region.

[vii] Isaac Clarence Kulp, Jr., ed., “The Cover Picture,” The Goschenhoppen Region vol. 1, no. 1 ( Peterkett/St. Peter in Chains Day August 1, 1968): 2.

[viii] Hersh, 145.

[ix] Johann Jacob Brunner. Vorschrift zu nützlicher Nachahmung und einer fleissigen Übung zu Gutem vorgestellt und geschrieben durch Joh. Jacob Brunner älter von Basel. Gegraben in Bern von Carl Gottlieb Guttenberger aus Nürnberg. Bern, Switzerland: n.p., ca. 1766.

[x] Hersh, 67.

[xi] Jerusalem Du Gottes Stadt gedenke jener Plagen….in Das kleine Davidische Psalterspiel. Germantown: Christoph Sauer, 1744, p. 216, Hymn 221, verse 1.

[xii] Gott hat in meinen Tagen mich väterlich getragen….is part of the opening line of a seven-verse religious poem by Jakob Friedrich Feddersen (1736-1788).

[xiii] Dennis K. Moyer. Fraktur Writings and Folk Art Drawings of the Schwenkfelder Library Collection. King of Prussia, PA: Pennsylvania German Society, vol. XXXI, 1997, 115.

My thanks to Bob Wood, and Linda Szapacs of the Goschenhoppen Historians; Dorothy McCoach, Independent Conservator; Dave Luz, Hunt Schenkel and Candace Perry of the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center.

Schwenkfelder Eighteenth & Nineteenth Century Textile Samplers and Writing Samples Blog Post including transcriptions; translations; and photo images excepting illustrations in Tandy and Charles Hersh’s Samplers of the Pennsylvania Germans © 2016 Del-Louise Moyer