Rare watercolor: metamorphosis Probably New England, dated 1794

Joe Kindig Jr., York, Pennsylvania, 1968

"Every Picture Tells a Story: Word and Image in American Folk Art," American Folk Art Museum, 1994-1995
"Folk Art Revealed," New York, American Folk Art Museum, November 16, 2004-August 23, 2009

American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 262, figs. 226A-O

Some minor stain; overall very good condition. Backs glued. Folds are re-inforced with rice paper.
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Inscribed first book, panel one, ink: Adam comes firft upon the Stage / And Eve out of 1115 Side / Was given him in Marriage / Turn up and see the Bride; panel two: Here Eve in shape you do Behold / One Body sheweth twain / Do but the Lower leaf unfold / And its as Strange again; panel three: Eyes look not on the Mermaid face / Nor ears attend her Song / her face hath an allureing grace / More Charming is her Tongue; second book, panel one: Here Cain in Suppliant Posture bends / To implore of Heaven its Love / In blefsing that he moft Depends / But is notAnswer'd from above / For his Heart want right or yet sincere / Turn up his Brothers offering there / CF;  panel two: Here Abels approv'd in his makers sight / As was not his brother Cain / Turn down you will See in Enmous Fright / How Vilely he was Slain; panel three: The Devil tempts one mothers Son / To rage against the other /  So wicked Cain was hurried on /Till he had killed his Brother; third book, panel one: A Lion roused from his Den / On pirpose for to range / he is Turned into another Beast / Turn up and See how Strange / PP; panel two: A Griffen Shape you do Behold /Half fowl half Beast to be / Do but the Lower leaf unfold / And a Stranger Sight you See; panel three: Behold within the Eagles Claws /  An Infomt here doth Lye /  which he has gotten as a prey / with wings prepared to fly; fourth book, panel one: The Child is Safe to manhood grown / The Eagle far is flown/ His hearts now set in gathering gold /Turn down the Leaf & it Behold; panel two: A Purs of Gold and Silver Store / Has curd my Heart I am sick no more / But my Pleasure fully  shall abound / With this Fifty thousand pound; panel three: A heart you See oppreft with care / What Salve can cure the Same / Under thiS Leaf you ill find it there / Lift up & see how Plain; fifth book, panel one: Now I have Gold and Silver store / Bribd from the Rich pawnd of the Poor /  No worldly cares can trouble me / Turn Down the Leaf & you Shall See /17 /94; panel two: Behold o man thou art but dust / thy Gold and Silver is but ruft / thy Days are past thy Gold is spent / No worldly cares can Death prevent; panel three: Sicknefs is come and Death draws nigh / help
Gold and Silver or I die / It will not do all is but drops / Turn up and See a greater crofs

Mystery plays were episodic religious stories enacted during the European Middle Ages by members of trade and crafts guilds, which each took responsibility for one presentation in a cycle that might include several chapters from the Old and New Testaments. In Elizabethan England, morality plays that were descended from such religious pageants brought home Shakespeare's trenchant observation that all the world is a stage. Capitalizing on the strength of dramatic or comedic performance as a way of disseminating basic truths, vernacular dramas conveyed religious and moral lessons in a popular way that could be understood and appreciated by a broad segment of society. Eighteenth and nineteenth-century puzzle books functioned in a similar manner, amusing young children while at the same time offering instruction.

The initial verse of this puzzle book calls ''Adam ... first upon the stage," harking back to its roots in religious performance. Handmade in both German- and English-speaking communities in America, these books were based upon printed German and English prototypes that featured religious and moral verses in rhyme.^l Similar to today's flip books, in the early nineteenth century they were called "turn-ups"; they are also known as metamorphosis books because the pictures and verses change as the leaves are turned up or down. This late-eighteenth-century example is closely based on metamorphoses authored by Benjamin Sands and illustrated with cuts by James Poupard. These popular American editions, produced from at least 1787 through 1820, were often copied and hand-colored, sometimes by children or young adults. The verses contained in this version and many of the Sands editions paraphrase the text of The Beginning and Progress of Man (London: E. Alsop, 1654).² The mythological and biblical references in rhymed verse reinforced the religious precept of life in early America: from original sin to the inevitability of death, the only real reward was not material wealth on earth, but salvation through Christ in death.³ -S.C.H.

¹ Beatrice B. Garvan and Charles F. Hummel, ne Pennsylvania Germans: A Celebration of Their Arts, 1683-1850 (Philadelphia: PMA in association with Winterthur, 1982), p. 171.
² Several of the Sands/Poupard metamorphoses, as examples of handmade copies, are cited in D'Alte A. Welch, A Bibliography of American Childrens Books Printed prior to 182] (Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society, 1968), pp. 295-304. I am indebted to Georgia B. Barnhill, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass., for bringing this volume to my attention.
³ Mythological references to mermaids, or sirens, and griffins suggest a widespread familiarity with classical literature. It is interesting that this metamorphosis makes a transition from a griffin to an eagle to the pursuit of gold. In Greek mythology, the griffin was a creature that guarded deposits of gold. This type of imagery may also be related to Mannerist visual traditions that were filled with such hybrid and mythological creatures; see Robert F. Trent, "The Concept of Mannerism," in Museum of Fine Arts, New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century, vol. 3 (Boston: MFA, 1982), pp. 368-79.