Birth and Baptismal certificate for Johan Georg Dieder (1775-1850)

Date1776-1801

Attributed to Georg Friedrich Speyer (fl. ca. 1752 - 1801)

Printer Ephrata Cloister Press

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Berks County and Lancaster County

MediumWatercolor and ink on laid paper

DimensionsPrimary Support: 12 7/8 x 16 1/4in. (32.7 x 41.3cm)

Credit LineGift of Franklin Joseph Burchfield, Jr., David Martz Burchfield, Diane Edith Burchfield, and Barbara Elizabeth Burchfield Harvill in memory of Franklin Joseph Burchfield, Sr.

Object number2012.1100.1

DescriptionA partly press-printed, partly hand-executed decorated certificate. A hand-colored row of printer's ornament forms a border device at top center. Press-printed wording whose gaps were filled in by hand in red ink or watercolor form the text block in the center of the sheet. Freehand decoration embellishes the sides and bottom: on each side, a winged angel head atop a heart appears above a standing winged bird pecking its own breast. Asymmetrical forms of a tulip (one on a long, foliated stalk, one on a short, smooth stalk) also appear on the sides. Three small rounded flower blooms are scattered through the larger motifs. At bottom center, two mermaids with red-tipped, trumpet-shaped tails seem to force-feed a bird between them.

The certificate was unframed upon receipt. Per the donor's statement, the frame formerly enclosing it was modern and was not retained.
Label TextAlthough this partly press-printed, partly hand-wrought certificate was severely damaged before 2012 conservation treatments arrested its decline, it remains a useful example of the Ephrata Cloister print shop's output and of the freehand lettering and embellishments supplied by Georg Friedrich Speyer.

Speyer is thought to have reached Pennsylvania in 1752. He served as a private in a German regiment mustered in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1776, and he was a schoolmaster at Warwick (now Brickerville) Lutheran Church in northern Lancaster County in 1780. Most Pennsylvania German school teachers exhibited better hand skills than Speyer; they were capable of more consistently executed and more legible writing, and their ornamental motifs were more meticulously executed. Speyer illustrates an extreme in the wide range of acceptability tolerated by students' parents.

Johan Georg Dieder, the child for whom the certificate was made, was the fourth child born to Johan Georg and Mari Catherine Dieder of Berks County, Pennsylvania. See "Provenance." The certificate descended in his family until its presentation to the Folk Art Museum in 2012. For more information on the family, see Eunice Deter, Geraldine Deter, and Theodore Deter, eds., _The Deter Family History: A Genealogy Beginning with Johann Georg Dieder Born in 1739_ (compiled 1952-1965 and privately printed).
InscribedA label, handwritten in blue pencil, partly in block-style letters and partly in script, was once tacked to the back of the formerly-framed certificate and was received, detached, along with the certificate; it reads: "THIS/FRAMED CERTIFICATE/IS/THE PROPERTY OF/MISS ANNA BELLE/SOLLENBERGER/Nelson street/Chambersburg Pa,/M. E. Branthaver".
Markings
There is a Christian Bauman watermark in the primary support. See Gravell and Miller ("Bibliography").

A typed label received with the certificate reads: "Greencastle, Pa./November 10, 1958/TRANSLATION OF THE DIEDER BAPTISMAL CERTIFICATE/APPEARS TO BE AS FOLLOWS./'Born to Johann Georg Dieder with his/wife or marital helper Mari Catherine Johann Georg Dieder/the 26th of December 1775 at 11th hour in the night/in Dolbehaden Township Berks County in the/state of Pennsylvania/received the Holy Baptism by minister Shultz/the 5th of January 1776 baptismal wi[tnes]ses/Josephus Krenz and his wife Anna Eva./God bless your entrance and exit, your plowing/and sowing, your morning and evening sacrifice: let the/mountains bring you peace and the hills rejoice,/so that your children will grow up as the/cedar trees in Lebanon. Amen.'"

Below the preceding is typed: "'Dolbehaden' means Tulpehocken Township and there is/a township so named in Berks County, Pa./The words below the long line are a verse. M. E. Branthaver/213 S. Allison Street/Greencastle, Pa."
ProvenanceFrom the subject for whom the certificate was made, Johan Georg Dieder (also known as George Deter), to his daughter, Polly Deter Sollenberger (Mrs. Martin Sollenberger)(1807-1884) of Franklin Co., Pa.; to her son, Joseph Sollenberger (1842-1925); to his daughters, Miss Anna Bell Sollenberger (1875-?) and Mrs. Emma Grace Sollenberger Walker (Mrs. William Walker)(1890-?) of Chambersburg, Pa.; to their nephew, Franklin Joseph Burchfield, Sr. (1918-1992), of Bethesda, Md,; to his daughter (and CW's donor), Barbara Elizabeth Burchfield Harvill (b. 1956) of Richmond, Va.