Birth and Baptismal Certificate for Enoch Scheib

Dateca. 1830

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Bucks County

MediumWatercolor and ink on laid paper

DimensionsPrimary Support: 15 15/16 x 12 1/2in. (40.5 x 31.8cm) and Framed: 19 5/8 x 16in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1981.305.2

DescriptionA vertical format certificate. A vertical format rectangle in the center, enclosed by three watercolored lines, contains all the script. At top center, an angel with out-spread wings holds a flower stem in either hand and blows from a stylized trumpet; the outer edges of its wings are ploychrome-striped like the lower angels' skirts. On each side of the rectangle and slightly above it, two larger angels confront one another, each holding a blossom in front of its face; the stems extend upwards and over in a U, terminating at the other ends in blossoms also. The larger angels' gowns are multi-colored stripes in the skirts and sleeves with blue, red-trimmed bodices. The upper wings are striped with plain ink, the middles decorated with inked scallop shapes, and the lower portions alternating stripes of red and cross-hatched ink. Their skirts balloon out in front in misunderstood application of printed designs. Below the center rectangle is a blue, green, and red radiating design or starburst. On either side of it is a blue bird on a branch; the two branches join at center bottom with a flower bloom. The outermost edges of the fraktur are formed by a row of blue watercolor scalloping, followed by straight lines of yellow and red.

Artist unidentified.

The picture was acquired in a modern, 1 9/16-inch flat oak frame with a half-round outer edge, painted flat black. Soon after acquisition, AARFAM replaced the preceding frame with a modern reproduction, 1 15/16-inch grain-painted one with raised corner blocks made by Bob Shaffer.

Label TextBaptism was considered essential to the soul's salvation by the Lutheran and Lutheran Reformed churches that dominated the religious landscape in German-speaking America. These sects practiced infant baptism, so data on a child's birth and baptism usually were combined on one document. Such certificates also often included religious admonitions directed to the child. This example includes the wording "Fear God and keep his commandments for that belongs to all mankind" (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

In the early nineteenth century, printed birth and baptismal certificates began to supplant the freehand examples that had preceded them. The printed forms were popular. Still, it was cheaper to hand-copy a printed form than it was to buy one. Therefore, many artists, like this one, freely borrowed from the appealing "vocabulary" of motifs that decorated forms issued by printers such as Henrich Ebner of Allentown. The museum's unidentified artist is sometimes called the "Ebner Print Copy Artist" due his reliance on the bent-kneed angels and backward-looking birds used by Ebner. (But other printers used them, or very similar motifs, as well.)

The artist's dominant motifs derive from ones found on numerous contemporary printed certificates (and he is sometimes called the "Ebner Print Copy Artist" because Henrich Ebner of Allentown, Pennsylvania, was one of the printers who used such bent-kneed angels and backward-looking birds) Several other printers used similar bent-kneed angels.) The unidentified artist created a number of closely related freehand certificates, all of them made for children born in Bucks County, where he is thought to have been a schoolmaster.
InscribedIn black ink in fraktur-style lettering in the center reserve is: "Diesen beyden Ehegatten, als Georg/Scheib und seiner ehelichen Hausfrau/Catharina gebohrne Hegern, ist ein Sohn/suz Welt gebohren, den 24ten December/im Jahr unsers Herrn 1826. Dieser Sohn ist gebohren in Nakomixon Taun/schip Bocks-Caunty, im Staate Penn/Sylvania, in Nord=America; und ist ge/tauft worden und erhielt den Namen/Enoch den 2ten Tag April im Jahr/unsers Herrn 1827 von Hrn Staehr. Die Tauf-Zeugen waren Christian/Heger und seine Frau Elisabeth=/Fürchte Gott, und halte seine Gebote,/dann das gehöret allen Menschen/zu. Erhalt uns im Erkenntniss dein/das wir darinnen bleiben."

The text translates as: "To these two married people, namely Georg Scheib and his lawful wife Catharina, born Hegern, a son was born into the world, on the 24th of December in the year of our Lord 1826. This son was born in Nakomixon Township, Bucks County, in the state of Pennsylvania in North America, and was baptized and received the name Enoch on the 2nd day of April in the year of our Lord 1827 from Mr. Staehr. The sponsors were Christian Heger and his wife Elisabeth. Fear God and keep his commandments for that belongs to mankind. [Ecclesiastes 12:13] Keep us in the knowledge of you that we remain within them."

ProvenanceAlong with acc. no. 1981.305.3 (which was created by a different artist), the fraktur descended in the family of Vernon Schreiner of Blackwood, NJ, who was AARFAM's source. Enoch Scheib, the subject of 1981.305.2, was Vernon Schreiner's great-grandfather.
The line of descent is partly speculated and partly documented as follows: from the subject, Enoch Scheib (also spelled Scheip and Shive)(1824-1909); to his daughter, Rose Ella Scheip Malseed (d. 1950); to her daughter, Laura Maude Malseed Schreiner (Mrs. Bernard Laird Schreiner)(d. 1973); to her son, Vernon Schreiner, AARFAM's source.