Fraktur: Celebrating Family and Faith
Fraktur of a parrot and bird with stylized flowers, watercolor on paper, Johann Heinrich Otto, Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1762–1797, frame, 8 in. h. by 6 1/2 in. w., $62,000.
You may have seen the lettering style before but not realized that fraktur (pronounced “frock-tour”) is a form of early American folk art. German settlers who came to Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries brought this style of writing and embellished it with religious and artistic symbols to record local and family history, making […]