Fraktur ~ Adam and Eve Bookboard ~

I just finished this Fraktur Bookboard of Adam and Eve for a client who commissioned it. My inspiration for this picture onto a very old leather Bible bookboard came from an 1820 Mennonite piece from Pennsylvania.

Here is a sweet poem by Marjorie Pickthall 1883-1922

Adam and Eve

When the first dark had fallen around them

And the leaves were weary of praise,

In the clear silence Beauty found them

And showed them all her ways.

In the high noon of the heavenly garden

Where the angels sunned with the birds,

Beauty, before their hearts could harden,

Had taught them heavenly words.

When they fled in the burning weather

And nothing dawned but a dream,

Beauty fasted their hands together

And cooled them at her stream.

And when day wearied and night grew stronger,

And they slept as the beautiful must,

Then she bided a little longer,

And blossomed from their dust.