Authentic Pennsylvania Dutch Designs by Frances Lichten (1976, Paperback, Illustrated)

Folk Art Motifs of Pennsylvania by Frances Lichten.

This book is an unabridged re-publication of the work originally published by Hastings House, New York in 1954, and provides a generous look at the spirit and color of traditional Pennsylvania Dutch motifs.

Dover, publ. 1976. 71 page paperback. 195 Illustrations, 41 in Full Color.

This book gives a generous look at the spirit and color of traditional Pennsylvania Dutch Motifs. Redrawn by the author from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fractor, quilts, ceramics, painted furniture, tinware, cookie cutters, and more, the drawings in this book document the leading folk art motifs of Pennsylvania.

This book is for all those who love the directness and honesty of peasant art, those who are attracted to it by their love of bold color, fine design, and by their feeling for the traditions of which it evolved.

Have we not seen these forms many times before - the tulip, the bird, the heart, the pomegranate, the angel, mermaid, lion, the horseman? Indeed we have, but they were always in books, books on European peasant arts. How then is it possible that they were used in this country, in rural regions of Pennsylvania? This book is the result of research for the answer.

I like the simplicity of the drawings. Generally you can find these images in photographs - but the designs are small, dark and hard to see. With these carefully reproduced sketches, you can see the exact shape outlines: large and clear.

The text accompanying the sketches is very interesting. "TULIP, BIRD, URN: The position of the bird plucking at its breast indicates that it is meant for the pelican, an ancient symbol. Well know in church heraldry, the pelican is there depicted as feeding the young with blood from its breast. As symbol the bird signified piety or the Atonement. As a decorative motif, the bird with its deeply curved neck survived in local folk art long after the nest of infant pelicans - and integral part of the symbol - disappeared. They were replaced, as time passed, by a tulip or spray of floral devices. In this example of rather late work the urn takes on a heart shape to which inadequate feet are added for support.