Birth and baptismal certificate for Johannes Althaus

A tour de force of text and imagery, this fraktur is signed in the top central arch “George Matz in Brunswick.” Brunswick refers to Braunschweig Township, formed in 1801 as one of the original townships of Schuylkill County when it was subdivided from Berks County. In 1834, it was divided into East and West Brunswick townships.

The arched top panel is bordered by alphabets in German Fraktur and Roman type. Written at the top of the central arch and continuing clockwise within a series of scalloped lobes are the Ten Commandments. The use of silver and gold-colored metallic powders is extremely rare in fraktur. A pair of columns, women in red robes, trumpeting angels, and winged angel head at top center are additional embellishments.

The certificate was made for Johannes Althaus, son of Johannes and Susanna (Weidehammer) Althaus, born on May 17, 1819, in Maidencreek Township, Berks County, PA. He was baptized in June 1819; the sponsor was his maternal grandfather Georg Adam Weidenhammer.

Notes: two other pieces signed by George Matz are known (see Pook & Pook, The Americana Collection of Richard and Rosemarie Machmer, October 24-25, 2008, lots 280-1). Fraktur with a strikingly similar arrangement of columns and scalloped borders were also made by Johann Carl Scheibeler, who produced fraktur in the Northampton/Lehigh County area, PA; northern Maryland; and Westmoreland County, PA (where he was active from at least 1784–93).