$575
Alsatian Gottelbrief (good wishes from godmother to godson), dated 1814 , hand-drawn watercolor and ink on wove paper, done for Jacob... ., Cleeburg, Alsace, with red, green, and yellow script over black German script, over a heart enclosing carnations and leafy vines, flanked by other floral vines growing out of the heart, 8 1/4" x 12". Pictured in Fraktur Writing or Illuminated Manuscripts by Dr. Donald A. Shelley, plate 23. According to Shelley this is "a perfect counter-part of the Pennsylvania ones of the same era, especially some of the early 19th c. Mennonite Vorschoften". Provenance: Alsatian descendant to Marguerite Northrup. While Ms. Northrup was manager of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Information desk, she gave the watercolor to Dr. Shelley as a present.
Auctioneer:
Pook & Pook
Date:
2004-10-08
