Highlights

Historic Trappe is thrilled to announce the acquisition of an extraordinary book of fraktur, seventeen pages in all, that provides an incredibly rare glimpse of a fraktur artist’s work behind-the-scenes. It was made by Samuel Musselman, who signed it multiple times, and is dated 1816. There were multiple Samuel Musselmans in Bucks County at this time and we are still working to identify which one is most likely the artist. The book contains samples of various bookplates and other types of fraktur, likely as both a memory aid for the artist and to show prospective customers. Because of the book’s fragile nature, it was completely photographed and a digital flipbook version can now be viewed below.