Blue and Red Paint-Decorated Pine Tray, Southeastern Pennsylvania, circa 1835

Marjorie Schorsch, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1987

American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 173, fig. 140

Old splits and rim chip. Bottom is loose.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

A number of open boxes, trays, or four-sided bowl forms with square plank bottoms and flared, trapezoidal sides survive with histories relating them to the Pennsylvania German community. The form seems to have been adapted to serve varied purposes: some were used to serve and display food and produce; some were lined with textiles and used as sewing baskets; and others were filled with sawdust or wood shavings and used as cuspidors or spittoons. This example-with full, wedged, dovetailed corner joinery, pierced, sawn cutwork, ogee-shaped top edges, and lively painted decoration-relates to several boxes referred to in early domestic inventories as "egg baskets."¹Painted with a now oxidized and darkened blue-green ground color and decorated with freehand-painted flowers, vines, and leaves in white and red, it relates closely to the similarly decorated dome-top storage boxes and was probably executed by the same hand. Its interior shows no sign of any prior attached textile lining or the residual staining found in wooden cuspidors following this form, further suggesting its use as an egg basket or food bowl.

Within the Pennsylvania German community, domestic customs surrounding the secular celebration of important religious holidays such as Christmas, Easter, and Good Friday inspired various decorations and craft traditions. The Easter rabbit, an image that survived from early Teutonic mythology among German Protestants, was believed to come to lay eggs in assurance of nature's regeneration and in the promise of continued good luck and fertility. On April 23, 1829, a reporter for the Allentown Republikaner wrote that on Easter Sunday there was an abundance of "colored eggs that the rabbit had laid! ... The little ones were pickling eggs; the old folks were scratching tulips on the eggs."² Brightly colored, decorated eggs were produced and proudly displayed within many households, and both children and adults were presented with often intricately decorated eggs as tokens of affection and good luck. A decorated tray or "basket," filled with a colorful bounty of fanciful eggs symbolizing the promise of spring, would certainly have served as a source of wonder and pride during such seasonal celebrations. -J.L.L.  

¹ One such egg basket has painted decoration arranged in panel formats and a history of ownership in Berks County, Pa. (collection PMA). Also housed in the PMA archives are the field notes and research archive of Frances Lichten, a pioneering researcher on Pennsylvania German culture whose work formed much of the basis for the Index of American Design under the Federal Art Project in the 1940s. In her studies of Easter traditions and egg decorations among the Pennsylvania Germans, Lichten archived and photographically recorded two similarly decorated wooden egg baskets in local households.
² As quoted in Beatrice B. Garvan and Charles F. Hummel, The Pennsylvania Germans: A Celebration of Their Arts, 1683-1850 (Philadelphia: PMA in association with Winterthur, 1982), p. 157.