Adam and Eve in Paradise. Mel. Herzlich thut mich Verlangen

Ephrata: Samuel Baumann, 1811. Broadside. 405 x 330 mm., (16 x 13 inches). Watermark "A K" for Abraham Keller. Title and two columns of text in German, with a central woodcut image of Adam and Eve, the Tree of Knowledge and the Serpent; all enclosed with a typographical border. Folded; with some paper repair to upper right corner and at the margin of the center fold; the entire broadside expertly backed with Japanese paper. 'Adam and Eve' broadsides were among the most popular of all Pennsylvania German broadsides. They were printed by many printers in numerous editions, but primarily in German. Walter Boyer attributed the popularity of 'Adam and Eve' broadsides to the quality of the graphic image, the broadsides wide distribution and its expression of Christian values." This Ephrata printing by Samuel Bauman is the earliest example of the 'Adam and Eve' broadside and includes all the elements that were used in later examples printed by other Pennsylvania German printers. This includes the sixteen-stanza poem printed in two columns, the central woodcut of Adam and Eve, the use of fig leaves to cover the genitalia of both figures, and the serpent offering the apple to Eve. Research by Alfred L. Shoemaker has identified twenty-nine separate issues of this form of broadside by fourteen different printers. In Walter Boyer's essay "Adam und Eve im Paradies" he describes the Adam and Eve broadside printed by Samuel Baumann in 1811. At the base of the woodblock the initial "R & W S" are carved into the block and Boyer makes the reasonable assumption that they are the signature of the cutter who created the block. The woodcut was so popular that it was used in a Philadelphia printing of the broadside by Moritz Dahlem fifty years after it was originally cut. Samuel Baumann was a member of the Ephrata Cloister and a papermaker and printer who inherited the business in 1810 from his father John, a distinguished member of the Cloister. His cousin Joseph took over the business from Samuel in 1816 and was carried on well into the middle of the century. "Samuel Bauman (1788-1820) was a householder at the Ephrata Cloister. He printed only a short time and from about 1810 to 1816. Products from his press were primarily broadsides, with only one booklet credited to him" (Earnest). The paper stock was made by Abraham Keller and the watermark 'A K' appears below the woodcut in the near center of the sheet. "Abraham Keller married Elizabeth Feger, daughter of the papermaker Paly Feger. Sometime before Feger died in 1790 he deeded his paper mill in Exeter Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania to Keller... Hathan Sellers manufactured moulds for Keller in 1796 and 1804. On February 23, 1804, Keller ordered a mould watermarked 'A K', Earnest, Flying Leaves and One-Sheets, p. 200. Yoder, Pennsylvania German Broadside, pp. 202-03. Walter Boyer, "Adam und Eva im Paradies," The Pennsylvania Dutchman 8, no. 2 (Fall-Winter 1956/57), pp. 14-18. Alfred Schoemaker, "Adam and Eve Broadsides" The Pennsylvania Dutchman, 4, no. 6 (October 1952), pp. 4-5. Stopp, 4:70. The Times of Philadelphia, February 23, 1879. Gravell, Miller & Walsh, American Watermarks, pp. 2 and 278.