Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Woodblock |
Object ID |
2025.038.0001 |
Title |
Adam and Eve Woodblock |
Artist |
Dahlem, Moritz (1839-1892) |
Year Range from |
1850 |
Year Range to |
1900 |
Materials |
Iron, wood |
Description |
Adam and Eve woodblock used by Moritz Dahlem at his shop No. 329 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA Adam and Eve standing next to Tree of Knowledge, which is bearing fruit. The snake is crawling up the tree and has a half eaten apple in its mouth. Eve is handing an apple to Adam. This woodblock motif appears in other printshops by other printers including Samuel Bauman, Henry B. Sage, and H.W. Villee of Lanacaster, PA. A printed copy of the woodblock appears in the PA Dutchman, Vol. IV, No. 6 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). |
Source |
Gift of Edwin Hild & Patrick Bell, Olde Hope Antiques |