Dave Rowe and team at Rowes Auction Service in Carlisle, Pa., held their annual Black Friday antique auction on Nov. 28. A featured grouping in this sale belonged to respected dealer Terry Drachbar of Carlisle. A strength of the collection were early religious books, prints, sale bills, ledgers, deeds, advertising, and photographs, much of which pertained to Cumberland County. A rare confirmation certificate, ca. 1805, printed in Carlisle by Friederich Sanno, sold to an absentee bidder for $2,500. Rowes does not charge a buyers premium. Also from the Drachbar collection was an early Pennsylvania walnut shrank, which realized $4,000, selling to a local buyer. Also, an 18th-century Bible box with inlaid initials, rear feet restored, sold to the trade for $2,600. A rare box of prayer cards, mid 18th century, sold for $3,200. Believed to have been printed by Christopher Sauer in Germantown, Pa., stored in a rectangular box, the set of 381 cards each contains a short Bible verse in German with poetry underneath which each relate to the particular verse and was written by Gerhard Tersteegan (1697-1769). These cards held ritualistic significance enabling the parishioner to reflect and ask questions to the divine spirit of God partially through holy text and their own brand of mysticism. Using the cards would not need to occur in a church. It was a brand of fortune-telling or lottery playing. These pietists came to the new world, as a religious movement, split from the church, to practice faith as free as possible. According to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, which has studied these cards, with examples in their collection, The cards were a way to directly interact with the Divine, with no other intercession needed. Tersteegens wordplay is experimental, using clever rhymes and puns to invite meditative association. The society also writes, Radical pietists split from their churches to found a religion of the heart, with a focus on ethical purity, inward devotion, asceticism and mysticism. They formed distinct and separate communities, and practiced their faith freely in the Pennsylvania colony. The box at Rowes contained 371 of what is believed to have originally been 381 cards. Winterthur Museum has a box with 318 cards. For a box of these cards to be found outside a museum is extremely rare. The artifacts speak to 18th-century printing in Colonial America, and also a religious revolution helping tell the story of how Christians from German-speaking parts of Europe, post-Reformation, spoke and interacted with God and spirit in early America. This brand of early mysticism is fascinating Pennsylvania history, and the chance of seeing a box of these cards again at a public sale is slim. Local Samuel Irvine stoneware from Newville brought good prices and stayed in the area. A private collector bought a man-in-the-moon decorated Cowden & Wilcox stoneware crock for $7,200. A pair of Jacob Maentel portraits, plain, yet an indentified Hanover, Pa. couple, went to the trade for $3,700. Some redware jars stamped by Shippensburg potters did well. An Abel Keeney (Carlisle, Pa.) copper tea kettle sold for $450. A framed The Life and Age of Man broadside sold for $1,600. It was printed in Carlisle (1826) by Moser and Peters. Another highlight was an extremely rare broadside from Ephrata by Bauman and Ruth depicting Adam and Eve, selling for $8,400. For additional information, contact Dave Rowe at 717-574-1008.