Pennsylvania German Painted Chests

Pennsylvania German Painted Chests
Author(s): Ester Stevens Fraser

Source: Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Museum, Vol. 21, No. 97 (Nov., 1925), pp. 27-34
Published by: Philadelphia Museum of Art
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GermanPaintedChests
Pennsylvania
tITHIN
RWV the last few years there has been a constantlyincreas-
ing interest in the native folk art of our early settlers from
German and Swiss territories. To Dr. Edwin Atlee Barber,
pioneer in the field of old-time Pennsylvania German decoration, we
are greatly indebted for his studies in the religious and peasant
motifs exhibited upon local pottery and ironwork. Through his
writing, collectors have come to realize the unique human appeal of
the humbler arts practised by those religious refugees from the Pala-
tinate who were establishing new homes in America. Their inherent
love of color and symbolical decoration extended to other things be-
sides stove plates and pottery-namely to household furniture, jewel
boxes, bonnet or bride boxes, as well as birth and marriage
certificates.
One of the most interesting and hitherto unstudied fields of
Pennsylvania German art is to be found in the work of furniture
painters upon the Truhe, or dower chests. An important collection
representing each of the county types has been assembled by the
architect, Mr. Clarence Wilson Brazer, and will be placed on exhi-
bition at the Museum on November ninth. We consider it a great
contribution to our knowledge of the decorative arts practised in
Southeastern Pennsylvania. It is a curious fact that these German
and Swiss immigrants so clung to their native customs year after
year that designs on the dower chests show a distinct classification
according to the locality in which they originated. While, in these
days of antique pursuing and collecting, it is not always possible to
ascertain where an old dower chest was first made, it is neverthe-
less quite usual for these chests to remain in their original locality
until picked up by some dealer or collector. The Pennsylvania
German is not a traveller, preferring to stay on the home farm
generation after generation, and many descendants of the same
name are found in that section where the first ancestor settled. The
dower chest was the prized possession of each young girl as she
came to marriageable age, and after her marriage was often be-
queathed to her daughter. In wills the bequest is often stated as
"My chest with linen and pewter therein." This is perhaps the
first indication we have of pewter having been kept in a chest, pos-
sibly in the small drawers often found at the base.
It is not infrequent for a Pennsylvania painted chest to bear
a date and a name, which is of great help in ascertaining the
county of its origin. From genealogical evidence such as this
we are able to call a certain type of chest Lancaster, another Lehigh,
and so on. The Lancaster County type has three sunken panels with
moulded or fluted stiles and other fine cabinet work. One such chest
bears the name Margaret Kernan with the date 1788. Research in
old church records tells us that she was the daughter of Michael
27
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COUNTYCHEST,DATED1788
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LANCASTERCOUNTY CHEST, DATED 1788
and Caritas Kern, born April 8, 1760, in Lancaster City. (The final
en, in, or an is the feminine ending used prior to a girl's marriage).
Likewise, a chest of identical construction, but slightly different
workmanship in decoration, belonged to Anna Maria Lescherin in
1781. Just one Lesher (the difference in spelling is almost inevit-
able, and should be ignored) family has been found after weeks
of searching through all available records. In the 1790 census,
Michael Lesher is listed in Cocalico township, Lancaster County, as
having three females in his family, so it is fairly reasonable to
END VIEW OF LEBANON COUNTY CHEST, DATED 1721.
assume that Anna was one of his daughters. In the Bucks County
Museum at Doylestown, there is a chest with the inscription, "Chris-
tina Hesern 1775." Genealogical records show that she married
Wigard Miller on June 2, 1773, but fail to say in what locality they
lived. This chest is of interest as having probably been made after
her marriage unless there is some misreading of dates. We know
of a chest bearing the inscription, "Elizabeth Herwecken, 1781,"
and have discovered that she died unmarried; her will filed in Bucks
County in 1813, bequeaths her property to nieces and nephews.
Here, then, is a dower chest which failed to fulfill its destiny.
29
FRONT VIEW OF LEBANON COUNTY CHEST, DATED 1721.
Students of design will find it worth their while to study the
similarity in motifs used for chest decoration and the many differ-
ences in the technique of the various decorators. Mr. Brazer's early
Lebanon County type chest displays the most interesting decora-
tion, as well as the earliest date (1721) that appears on any Penn-
sylvania chest yet brought to light. Upon the face we find the
bride and groom dressed in quaint costume, and on the side is a
curious building which may represent the church in which they
were married. A baluster-supported arch of Gothic form frames
a pot of three tulips, as is usual on chests found in the vicinity
of Lebanon. Every design element is outlined in white on these
chests-a very effective method to use in an early period when
pigments were not clear color, and because of their expensiveness
were used sparingly. Some chests were decorated directly on the
wood without the use of any background color.
Berks County chests frequently display such interesting design
motifs as the unicorn, the lion and the horseman, while at the
corner appears a curious heart decoration painted half on the front
face of the chest, and half on the side. The man riding on horse-
back is a familiar motif on Spinner pottery made in that corner
of Bucks County, which is only five miles removed from the Berks
County border. Many people interpret this figure as General
Washington because of the military uniform and the upraised sword.
It might just as easily have been meant for Frederic the Great, who
once was commander of Hessian troops. We must not forget that
the British brought over many Hessians to fight here, who after-
ward settled with the German-speaking Pennsylvanians who had
established homes in this region. The horseback rider depicted
may represent the young chevalier of earlier days dear to the heart
of every romantic young maiden. The unicorn is the medieval symbol
of ideal maidenhood. Such motifs as these make Berks County chests
of great interest because of their naive peasant characteristics.
In Lehigh and Montgomery Counties decoration was more
formal, employing simple floral or purely geometrical devices such
as hearts and stars made of circles. It is the same religious star
symbol that we see used so strikingly on barns throughout Lehigh
County. This star, in a more inconspicuous size, is used in the dec-
oration of chests, jewel boxes, birth certificates, spoon racks-in
fact anything constructed and ornamented by the Pennsylvania
Germans of all these counties. But in Lehigh the star is the most
conspicuous, and sometimes the only motif employed. Montgomery
County designs are more floral, but usually these are precisely laid
out by compass as though the decorator did not feel free to paint
even a tulip without guiding lines.
It may be well to mention at this point the similarity in
method used by chest painter and maker of sgraffito pottery. In
each case the design is scratched by some sharp-pointed instrument,
31
LEHIGH COUNTY CHEST, DATED 1798.
and the color filled in afterward. Due to this process, the careful
student is usually able to ascertain the original decoration on a chest
even when the paint is practically worn off.
From valley regions in Schuylkill County, below Luzerne, comes
a type of furniture which reflects a curious bit of local history.
Many of us have forgotten about the small civil war waged when
venturesome Connecticut men attempted to claim and settle upon
Pennsylvania lands lying between the forty-first and forty-second
parallels. After the American Revolution, this dispute was finally set-
tled by peaceful means, and small communities composed of some
Connecticut and some Pennsylvania German people were established.
From this territory comes a strange type of furniture that is mostly
Connecticut in construction, and mostly Pennsylvania German in dec-
oration. Yet each national characteristic is slightly tempered by con-
tact with the other nationality. Mr. Brazer is exhibiting a chest of
drawers which shows this hybrid type quite strikingly. Each drawer
has a sunken panel outlined by moulding in a Jacobean fashion much
used on Connecticut chests. And opposite the end of each drawer is
another sunken panel in the upright posts. Nutting's book on "Fur-
niture of the Pilgrim Century" illustrates a Connecticut chest of
identical construction. Yet the decoration on Mr. Brazer's chest of
drawers exhibits such purely Pennsylvanian motifs as angels, tulips
growing out of hearts, and love birds. From this same locality have
come decorated corner cupboards, grandfather clocks, dressers, and
many chests of drawers, but almost no chests such as were cus-
tomary dower chests in Pennsylvania. Most of this furniture was
made by members of one family, whose many descendants have
kept it until now.
A distinct type of florally decorated chest comes from the
western section of Pennsylvania German territory near Dauphin
County. As the map stands today, this is northern Lebanon Coun-
ty. Originally this section was all known as Lancaster, until Daup-
hin County was formed from it in 1785; and Lebanon was made in
1816 from sections of Dauphin and Lancaster. Chests from this
section antedate Lebanon County, so that the territory where they
were made was probably known as Dauphin County, in their day.
To differentiate these florally decorated chests from the earlier
Lebanon type characterised by the baluster-supported arches, we
designate them Dauphin County. From this vicinity have come
several chests with (supposedly) the decorator's name scratched
on a vase before the paint had hardened. The most distinct name,
found six or eight times on chests exhibiting identical technique,
is that of John Seltzer, with the dates, 1804, Feb. 7th, 1805, and
1808. In each case the decoration is the same, employing only the most
minor variations; and the paint is used with the same extraordinary
thickness as if mixed with beeswax. Until we find a chest signed John
Seltzer which shows a decoration painted by a different hand, we
33
students of design are forced to believe that he was really the dec-
orator and not the owner for whom the chest was painted. Unfort-
unately all efforts to ascertain facts concerning John Seltzer in
this locality prove fruitless. All we know is that Jacob and Wyrick
Seltzer were prominent landowners near Womelsdorf, which is in
Berks County at the Lebanon County line. At the time of the Rev-
olution, these Seltzers kept a tavern important enough for General
Washington to be entertained there. Wyrick is supposed to have
been Jacob's son, and we can only suppose that John might have
been one of Wyrick's sons who went over into Lebanon County to
travel around decorating chests. Another suppostion is that John
was an adult immigrant who came to this region in the 1790's. Two
Christian Sulsers and one John Salzer lived in Dauphin County ac-
cording to 1790 census. Two Christians in one locality sug-
gests father and son. The writer owns a chest with scratched signa-
ture Christian Salsor date 1793. We have noticed two chests that
appear to have the scratch signature of Johann Seltzer, and
the date 1799. The workmanship is half like that on the John
Seltzer chests, and half like chests which appear to be signed
Johann Rand or Rauch. The paint is not used with the same
striking thickness as on the John Seltzers, yet some of the
flower motifs are identical. We here face the problem of de-
ciding on the possibility that the German-Swiss immigrant used
the foreign form of the name when he first arrived, later perfect-
ing and somewhat changing his decoration when he anglicised his
name about 1804. There is also the possibility that John was Jo-
hann's son. Several other scratch signatures have been noticed,
but not yet successfully deciphered, and a careful study of all the
tiny details on such chests must be undertaken. John appears to
be son of whichever Christian Seltzer painted chests. Johann Rauch
inscribed his name and the date 1795 on each of the three vases dec-
orating the three panels. His decoration, contrary to John Selt-
zer's, shows no green leaf work, and a curious diagonal flecking in
black accentuates certain flower petals. A Johann Rauch chest and
a John Seltzer will be on exhibition.
The fact that a number of chests showing identical workman-
ship in painted decoration exist is of great importance. It proves
the incorrectness of the general supposition that these dower chests
were painted at home by amateurs who felt the urge to decorate.
It supports the belief that they were ornamented by professional
furniture painters who traveled from farm to farm wherever their
work was in demand, just as the traveling cobblers and traveling
tinsmiths did in the same sparsely settled locality. A thoroughly
professional use of paint is shown in the elaborate graining and
mottling done on some of these chests. Above all is the fact that
the decorative ornament is too well composed and too effective to
be the work of amateurs. ESTER STEVENSFRASER.
34

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Author(s): Ester Stevens Fraser

LANCASTERCOUNTY CHEST, DATED 1788

END VIEW OF LEBANON COUNTY CHEST, DATED 1721.

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