Baptismal Certificate

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Baptismal Certificate
Datec. 1820–1825
PlaceBedminster, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumInk and watercolor on laid paper
DimensionsSheet: 7 7/8 × 12 1/2 in. (20 × 31.8 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.60.40
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Description

For the 1820s, when the vertical format and preprinted text had become dominant, this entirely hand-produced horizontal certificate is unusual. Unlike B.60.42, which is also a late hand-executed example, this fraktur was only intended to be a baptismal certificate, as the legend “Tauf Schein” at the top indicates. 

Related examples: Weiser and Heaney 1976, no. 68, also Bucks County, features similar tulips with little circles and dots, has “Tauf Schein” at the top, and includes the same biblical quote, “Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord our God is one God.” 

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff.  American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


Provenance[Virginia A. and Richard H. Wood, Baltimore]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1960; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History"The Family" The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston May 29–August 6, 1989

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
O PATRIA watermark

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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