1852 silhouette

[sonomabarn67]

i have a silhouette signed on the reverse James E Wise Berlin Feb 1859. Hand cut black paper with gold painted highlights. Original frame. About 6" x 5". that's all good... but I can't find him. It's top level work so he must be known. I'm thinking Germany from the frame but...? any thoughts? Thanks.

[maxine*j]

My thought is that I see Scherenschnitte like this all the time here, some older than this and some done yesterday, some not as good as this and some better, because I live in Pennsylvania Dutch Country.  Nifty, isn't it?   And the gold highlights are neat.

Who knows?  That might even be from Berlin, PA, rather than Berlin in Germany.

Okay, so that wasn't especially useful.  But you asked for thoughts, and thoughts you got.  🙂

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[sonomabarn67]

Since I lived in Ohio, maybe Berlin, Ohio. Or, since that miter spline is holding the frame together looks euro to me, it could be an Ohio immigrant framer making it before he settled in to Ohio ways of doing it right.

[sonomabarn67]

What is the proper name for the gold treatment?

[maxine*j]

Another thought, but this is really off the cuff and out to lunch:  The handwriting does not look like what I would expect to see written by a German in 1859.   So it was added by the owner, perhaps even a relative...?

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[Anonymous]

James is an English language name, so the artist is likely not German.

[sonomabarn67]

Good one, thanks.

[maxine*j]

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@sonomabarn67 wrote:

Since I lived in Ohio, maybe Berlin, Ohio...

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The good folks of Berlin, PA, did not want to change the name of their town when war broke out in Europe, so they changed the pronunciation.   It became, and remains, pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable and a slight change to the vowel sound in the second.  So it sounds like "BURR-lun."   🙂

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[maxine*j]

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@sonomabarn67 wrote:

What is the proper name for the gold treatment?

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I don't know.  It's seldom seen around here, on Scherenschnitte new or old, and I don't know if it has a specific name.  Maybe just whatever the German word is for highlight, or accent, or similar...?

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[maxine*j]

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@Anonymous wrote:

James is an English language name, so the artist is likely not German.

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Good point.

Or maybe James E. Wise was the owner and he bought it in Berlin...?

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[mmadigan]

I checked the 1860 census.  There were listings for 262 James Wise in the US.  Checking the counties where Berlin OH or PA turned up no James Wise.  There is a James Wise, cabinet maker, born 1812 living in Berlin MA.

Dinner is mooing, so I will look into him later.

[mmadigan]

The 1880 census, marriage record and his obit lists his name as James E. Wise  According to his obit he was born 1 Feb in 1817 in Milford DE.  He married Eliz Tunnell Short in Delaware in 1845.  Note I made a typo in the previous post 1812 should be 1817.  The obit also mentions him being a cabinet maker and also was the state's oldest undertaker.

This may or not be your guy he lived from 1817 - 1904.

[mmadigan]

I forgot to mention when I did a search for James Wise with keyword Berlin in the 1860 census the above was the only hit.  Of course your guy may have ducked the census taker.  He is also the only James Wise in a Berlin in the 1850 or 1870 census.

[sonomabarn67]

That is helpful. Thank you. I don't think it's him only due to the lack of mention of him cutting and embellishing silhouettes but maybe that was a side job while doing his embalming. I''ll keep the door open on that. Maybe his son.

A very busy man if he was cabinetmaking, clerking groceries, silhouetting and embalming🤔.

[Anonymous]

Using the info. in the newspaper clipping provided by mmadigan, we would be talking about Berlin, Maryland. Berlin is on the eastern shore, just south of the Delaware border. And by chance if it's a portrait of his wife Elizabeth, she would have been 30 years old in 1859. Just 15/16 yo when married. Seems like his year of death would be 1901 though. Just some ideas.