Watercolor religious text with double eagle for Barbara Landes, Johann Adam Eyer (1755-1837) Probably Bedminster Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1788

Inscribed (translated from German) recto, ink: Written the 21 October in the year 1788 / Barbara Landes / Give Jesus your heart/in joy and in pain, In life /  and in death this only is gain. / My Jesus, most beautiful treasure / let me be / yours completely and press into my bosom faith. / Let your will constantly bend my own, so that I your bride I may always be. Lighten the candle of love in my heart / [so that] I / may belong / to you my entire life and eternally. I am your member, your child and / your dove. You are the head, the adornment and the cleft in the rocks, / you yourself are the vine, I a grape. I live entirely in you, / in the cave. Away with all complaints on that day, I shall also / be drawn to you in the heavens. Come, dear Jesus, come, let yourself / embrace [me] .My heart is laughing because I see you there, oh kiss / me, most beautiful, on both my cheeks. Let your good Spirit / blow in my heart. I will kiss your feet, Oh Jesus / dearest protection. It is done. My heart is attached only / to your heart. You are the wish of my soul and my desire / you drive all cares away and quiet all pains. To me / nothing else is known because of love. Let me be warmed / in your arms, I lie, oh Jesus! already on your breast. / Ah, your breast is full of many blessings. It soothes / us when death and hell press. You will / also lay me at your side, which gave blood and water / at the time of your passion, through this your suffering let me depart from this vale of tears into blessedness. Jesus, Jesus, is my life. Jesus turns all pain aside / Jesus, fesus will give me strength of heart and joyfulness. / I sing to Jesus over and over since Jesus dwells in me. JAE SD

George Horace Lorimer, Philadelphia
Parke-Bernet Galleries, "Fine American & English Furniture Collected by the Late George Horace Lorimer," March 29-April 1, 1944, lot 373
Arthur J. Sussel, Philadelphia
Parke-Bernet Galleries, "The Collection of the Late Arthur J. Sussel," October 23-25, 1958, lot 302
Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Cambridge, Maryland
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, "Important Frakturs, Embroidered Pictures, Theorem Paintings, and Cutwork Pictures from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch," January 24, 1974, lot 39

Andrews, Ruth, ed.. How to Know American Folk Art: Eleven Experts Discuss Many Aspects of the Field, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1977, pl. 31
Stoudt, John Joseph. Pennsylvania Folk Art: An Interpretation, Allentown, PA: Schlechter's, 1948, p. 204
American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 204, fig. 172

Some wear along the edges, small repair extreme lower left hand corner. Glued to acid free paper at the corners; backed with rice paper.
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