AFA 18th Anniversary

18th Anniversary 160 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com “Heart and Hand,” Tracy family register, unknown artist, Durham, Me., 1848. Watercolor and ink on paper. Frame: H. 12⅜, W. 16½, 1½ in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Jonathan and Karin Fielding. Several important examples of graphic arts and illuminated documents from early America in the Fielding collection communicate the values that their makers held dear. Vividly decorated family registers, marriage certificates, family trees, and other documents feature ornate vegetal decorative schemes, geometric patterning, and fanciful scrolling flourishes. One such example, a family register by the hand of the so-called Heart and Hand Artist, tells the story of the Tracy family of Durham, Maine. Discrete, precise columns organize the names, birth information, marriage date and location, and place and date of death of the four members of the Tracy family. In block letters interspersed with flowers and hearts, the artist carefully notes the death of the youngest Tracy child, Emore I. Tracy. A later hand fills in the blanks for the other members of the family.