The  AHA!  Event  of  the  Month

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). (An American Bison beating back Bears.) Etching + Engraving by Martin Elias. Inscribed: Ioh. Elias Ridinger inv. et del. / M. E. Ridinger sc. A. V., otherwise in German as above. 25.4 x 35.5 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 361. – Plate XXX of the “Special Events and Incidents at the Hunt” completed posthumously in 1779.
Offer no. 14,474

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Spring-Gun on a Bear. The stretched and strained bear reaching and licking for the honey-pot and the honey running out. But the bees feel bothered and sting him in the face. Washed brush drawing and pen and brown ink over somewhat graphite. 213 x 346 mm.

Drawing in the same direction, thus  before  its side-inverted version for the transfer on the plate, as preparatory for print 8, Th. + Schwarz 76, of the 28-sheet set “Ways to capture the Wild Animals” published 1750 (“beautiful and strange sheets of a highly interesting work”, Nagler). In Thienemann only a larger variant and two other preparatory drawings to this set (p. 274c) from the famous Ridinger collection of Mr. Weigel at Leipsic. Known furthermore seven others of the same provenance (a Westphalian Ridinger collection, amongst further drawings and sketches also graphical proofs) as the one offered here, of which two by two were supplied here, too, to an internationally magnificent private collection and to a most important Rhenish Ridinger collection resp., while another – the lynx of Thienemann + Schwarz 82 – is still available here.

On thin hand-made paper with typographic watermark. – On the back marginal marks of former mounting in points. Right top corner with a minimal repaired defect, hardly visible only. One 2 cm marginal tear repaired. Apart from that in perfect condition. – Quite wonderful item as one of the small group of quite especially pictorial drawings amidst the previous fullness dominated by its fascinating wash with its richness of light contrast. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 14,973  /  price on request

Oudry, Jean-Baptiste (Paris 1686 – Beauvais 1755) – Period – Bear-Baiting. Bear fighting with five hounds the one of them he has finished while another is clutched by him. Three further are coming along. Pen and brush in shaded black brown washed and heightened with a little white. 347 x 557 mm.

On thin greyish blue laid paper old mounted on laid paper and inscribed by unknown hand as Jean Baptist Oudry. Of three longitudinal folds including already the mounting paper only the middle one as centre-fold sharper. Rubbing marks, some small loss of paper in the outermost margins of both sides and below left.

Outstanding work of great compactness reaching its enormous suspense by renunciation of as good as every trimming as known already by works of the old Dutch master. Compare, e. g., Peter Bol’s etched mainwork of a boar hunt Andresen I, 143. Contrasting to this the soft character as typical for Oudry in many cases. Here supported by the paper.
Offer no. 13,021  /  price on request

Bear Hunting in Lapland. One of the three hunters, additionally with a fox on the back, loads one of the two hunted bears on a reindeer. In the middle distance a reindeer sledge, behind it further hunters. Glazed coloured wood engraving. 1853. 20 x 15.5 cm. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 12,213 / EUR  86. (c. US$ 139.) + shipping

(Polar Bear Hunting.) In an arctic landscape carried forward from a fort. Steel engraving after P. Wurster. 1861. 16.7 x 18.4 cm.
Offer no. 11,058 / EUR  60. (c. US$ 97.) + shipping

Snyders, Frans (1579 Antwerp 1657). (The Bear-Baiting.) The mighty bear resisiting the pack. Steel engraving by Thomas Heawood (active about 1850 – d. Leipsic before 1911). Ca. 1860. 14.8 x 16.6 cm.
Offer no. 4,913 / EUR  50. (c. US$ 81.) + shipping

Howitt, Samuel (1765 – Somers Town 1822). The Bear Trap. The bear in the pit. Aquatint together with M. Dubourg (before 1786 – after 1838) in its  original  colouring. London, Edward Orme, 1813. 17.8 x 21.8 cm.

From Foreign Field Sports. – Schwerdt I (1928), 177 ff.: “The coloured plates … especially those drawn by Howitt, are fine, both as regards draughtsmanship and colouring … (The book) is sure to increase in value …”. – Two sides of the wide white margin somewhat foxed. One spot also in the clean top margin. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 11,761 / EUR  101. (c. US$ 163.) + shipping

– – Seamen killing a Polar Bear. There is no chance for the bear against the seemen armed with boat-hooks and guns even when one of the two hounds will not survive the embrace. Aquatint together in its  original  colouring as above. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 11,770 / EUR  117. (c. US$ 189.) + shipping

– – A Trap to Shoot the Bear. The stretched bear strained reaching and licking for the honey-pot and the running out honey. Aquatint in its  original  colouring as above. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 11,776 / EUR  107. (c. US$ 173.) + shipping

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). (The Bear Looking for Honey). Etching + engraving. (1738.) Inscribed in the plate: J. E. Ridinger inv. fec. et exc. Aug. Vind. / N. 39., title as above. 18,5 x 14,8 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 429. – Plate 39 of the suite Design of Several Animals (“These plates are much wanted”, Thienemann 1856). – Wide-margined wonderful print of the 1^st edition.

“ Sitting beyond a hollow trunk in which a swarm of bees resides and trying to get rid of the bees (buzzing all around) stinging him in the face. ”

Offer no. 7,297 / EUR  217. (c. US$ 350.) + shipping

– – – (Posture of a Bear just when he starts to march down a Mountain.) Having weak eyes he takes the head between the paws and tumbles in such a manner downwards as Ridinger describes separately. Etching + engraving as above. Inscribed in the plate: J. E. R. fec. / N. 40., otherwise in German as before.

Thienemann + Schwarz 430; Ridinger catalogue Darmstadt, 1999, III.5 with ills. – Plate 40 of the set. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 7,298 / EUR  217. (c. US$ 350.) + shipping

– – – (The Bear in the Lair sucking on his Paws.) Etching + engraving as above. Inscribed in the plate: J. E. R. fec. / N. 41., otherwise in German as before. – Thienemann + Schwarz 431. – Plate 41 of the set. – The title partly a little weak. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 7,299 / EUR  202. (c. US$ 326.) + shipping

– – – (The Bear frightened.) Before his den confronted with a snake dating its tongue. Etching + engraving as above. Inscribed in the plate: J. E. R. fec. / N. 42., otherwise in German as before. – Thienemann + Schwarz 432. – Plate 42 of the set. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 7,300 / EUR  217. (c. US$ 350.) + shipping

– – – (A Bear consuming his Prey.) In the forest under a strong trunk over a roe. Etching + engraving as above. Inscribed in the plate: J. E. R. fec. / N. 44., otherwise in German as before. – Thienemann + Schwarz 434. – Plate 44 of the set. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 7,302 / EUR  228. (c. US$ 368.) + shipping

Thoman(n) von Hagelstein, Tobias Heinrich (1700 Augsburg 1764). Assault by a Lion on a Fallow-deer hunted by a Bear. Sliding down a rock the lion has grasped the deer while the bear appears above behind a fallen tree. Lower right a fox before a hole as surprised as not unwilling to take his part of the prey of the great game. Especially in view of the anticipated quarrel between them. Mezzotint in brown. Inscribed in the plate: T. Heinr. Thomann del. fec. et excud. A. V. 48.2 x 36.7 cm.

Schwerdt III, 172 ( “interesting” ). – Compare with ADB XXXVIII, 65 f. – Plate 1 of a four-plate suite of not numbered fights of beasts. – Watermark (figurative/typographic?). – Latin-German two-liner:

Here  lies  the  fallow-deer  the  bear  just  got
the  lion  deprives  him  the  prey  and  lets  the  bear  growl.

With surrounding paper margins of 2-2.5 cm. – Smoothed centre fold. – Two small shaves retouched. – Backside evenly slightly browned, namely the white margins just lightly foxing. Otherwise

wonderful  warm-toned  imprint

as reserved to only the first 50-60 from the delicate mezzotint plate. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 28,139 / EUR  885. / Export price EUR  841. (c. US$ 1358.) + shipping

Dancing bear between two flutists. Gouache on carton. Ca. 1920. Inscribed as before. 127 x 178 mm.

Design for a cigar-box illustration (“Flor Extra Fina”). – Below right reg. no. C 223. – Traces of montage on the back.
Offer no. 6,641 / EUR  118. (c. US$ 190.) + shipping

(Fights of Killing Animals) or The Big Five. Set of 8 sheets (ca. 38 x 29.5 cm). Etched/engraved by Johann Elias himself (the first four after drawings from the thirties (Rolf Biedermann in the Augsburg catalogue 1967) to which his equal friend Brockes, 1680-1747, in Hamburg contributed quite remarkable verses) + by Martin Elias (the second part after drawings of his father made in the year of publication only; the verses in Brockes’ spirit). (1760.) Large fol. Boards brown-stamped on frontcover in slipcase.

Thienemann ( “Rare”, 1856! ) + Schwarz 716-723; Cat. Weigel 16,545 (“Old impressions now to be found only rarely”, 1847!) + XXVIII, 40A (of C); (Ridinger) Cat. Helbing XXXIV, 1259 (“Very rare set”, 1900, but Th. 717 in a later impression only); Cat. Augsburg 1967 (three sheets only); Cat. Darmstadt IV.1-IV.7 (without plate 8), all illustrated.

Very fine early impressions preserved as part of a contemporary album separated now. – Wide margins above and below, at the sides differently less. Most of the margins, partly also in places only, for the most part only a little foxed. Two small tears in the lower margin repaired acidfree.

The horse and the lion / The bison and the tiger (recte panther) / Lioness with cub by a rock attacked by an “enormously  large  bear” / The furious leopard (recte tiger) lacerating an ass / The “Pardel” (Thienemann: maybe the Cougar, felis concolor. Linn., or the American lion) over a camel / The elephant and the rhinoceros / The wild bison and the crocodile / The hippopotamus and the lion.

Beyond the ostensible theme the first part of the set includes, ingeniously packed up, a politically quite spectacular message in the sense of “The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World” as quite surely deliberately ignored by Thienemann and now disclosed here for the first time. See to this the enlarged and revised internet version of

The  Dresden  Address  “(The Minimized Ridinger)”

See the complete description.
Offer no. 14,137  /  price on request

Fyt, Jan (1611 Antwerp 1661). (The Bear-Baiting.) The bear by the opening of a den hard-pressed by many hounds, but still with good chance to survive if no hunters will come along. On the right prospects over a wide river valley. Chalk lithograph by Johann Woelfle (Endersbach 1807 – Faurndau 1893) for Piloty & Loehle in Munich printed with beige tone plate. (1837/51.) 26 x 33.2 cm.

Nagler, Woelfle, 51. – Compare with Nagler XI, 312 ff. (Piloty) + IV, 539 f. (Fyt). – Not in Schwerdt. – On mounted China. – Quite weak fox-spots on the right of the lower margin, a marginal tear acid-freely repaired, otherwise impeccable. – Published inside the set (“Paintings of the Munich Gallery”) edited by Piloty since 1834 + 1837 together with Loehle resp. Among that Woelfle’s main sheets:

(“Especially fine are the impressions on Chinese paper … Already in lifetime of Piloty Woelfle was one of the most outstanding workers and still present there are only a few coming up to him except Hanfstängel”)

(Nagler 1852). – See the complete description.
Offer no. 28,066 / EUR  302. / Export price EUR  287. (c. US$ 463.) + shipping

in the so-called “Lion Copy” as the presumed hand copy of Ridinger, the “Otter Copy”, both part of the “Red Series” of special trouvailles here – offers per nos. 28,888 and 15,273 resp. on request.

Hunting with Hounds of 1723 as Ridinger’s second earliest hunting series, etched – Ridinger himself worked in copper since about 1728 only – by Johann Daniel Hertz (1693-1754) for Jeremias Wolff, both at Augsburg. 172(3). 36.5-37.2 x 49-49.4 cm and, two sheets, picturesize 33.1-34.5 x 48.6-48.8 cm resp.

Thienemann (1856) 9-12, but not in his possession (“I would like to possess them”); Schwarz, Gutmann Collection, (1910) 9-12 (1^st state added with 11a as 2^nd state, but 10 + 11 without the Virgil subtext + 11 without the 2^nd line with privilege note and Wolff’s address, too) + plate III of vol. I; Schwerdt (1928) III, 134, subsequently L’Art Ancien (1939) list 14, 2 (3^rd state with the Hertel address or mixed copy). – As “extremely rare” incomplete in other famous collections, among these even Weigel who in 1846 possessed sheet 1 as purely etched proof only.

The one here a mixed copy with the  Bear-Baiting  in the  first  state  and thus magnificient impression. Though above and on the sides trimmed on or just inside the image-border, below underneath of the 1^st line of the Latin two columns subtext from Virgil. Various smaller, in the upper corners larger tears repaired acid-freely and no more noticeable on the image-side than diverse traces of pleating and crease. In the right margin a 1 cm wide loss discreet added.

Bibliographic complete and detailed description of the other three sheets – Departure for Hunting / Stag Hunting by Water / Boar Hunt – on request. With good reasons L’Art Ancien qualified our set in respect of Mr. Schwerdt’s copy they had taken over as

See the complete description.
Offer no. 28,885  /  price on request

Aubry, Charles (France 1^st h. of the 19^th cent.). Chasses Anciennes d’après les Manuscrits des XIV & XVe Siècles. Set of  12  lithographs  (35-41.5 x 27-29 cm). Paris, Ch. Motte, 1837. Large folio. Loosely in orig. laid watermarked wrapper with illustrated lith. frontcover in colour. Uncut.

Schwerdt I, 47; Souhart 28; Lipperheide Tf 24; AKL V, 587, mixing l’Histoire de l’Equitation + Chasses Anciennes to one work, described bibliographically incorrectly, too. – On large strong paper with publishers’ dry-stamp. – Some small tears in the wide white margins restored acid-free. Mostly only within the latters quite minimal brown spots and quite outside a weak waterstreak. The wrapper time-marked as usual but without impairment of its illustration which is dominated by silence as well as rich happening.

Quite in contrast to the “Equitation” set, mentioned also within the title here, rare as also qualified by Boerner (CXII, 2296) already in 1912.

Designed in the so-called troubadour style with a main picture as total scenery and a number of instructive smaller details, explained by text strewn in. By which Aubry (“known lithographer”, Thieme-Becker) “achieved an exemplary effect in his genre. In the late work he renounced quite to this framework. 1822 professor for painting at the Ecole Royale de Cavalerie at Saumur” (AKL). – Signed and monogrammed (2) resp. in the stone throughout, 3 dated with 1835 and 1836 (2) resp.

Une St. Hubert – Chasse au sanglier – Chasse au cerf – Chasse de l’antilope au léopard – La chasse du loup – Chasse au  faucon  – Chasse au lievre à force – Des chiens courans – Chasse de gazelles – Sous Charlemagne (i. a. with a splendid hunting pageant with  falconers, the large pack of hounds, bears, lions and cats, partly tamed) – Chasse de l’autruche et de l’éléphant – Chasse au renard .
Offer no. 12,101 / EUR  620. / Export price EUR  589. (c. US$ 951.) + shipping

Bear Ditch in Berne. Four beasts communicating with onlookers. Wood engraving after Friedrich Specht (Lauffen on the Neckar 1839 – Stuttgart 1909). 16.7 x 12.4 cm.

On the back: Bauernfeind, Gustav (Sulz on the Neckar 1848 – Jerusalem 1904). (City Hall in Berne.) On a sunny morning, with various accessories. Wood engraving after G. B. for Adolf Closs, Stuttgart, (1875/77). 13.9 x 18.7 cm. – Running local text on both sides.
Offer no. 9,691 / EUR  50. (c. US$ 81.) + shipping

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Bruiser, C. Churchill … in the Character of a Russian Hercules. The writer Churchill whose “Epistle to Hogarth” provoked the master in the character of a strong Russian bear, hugging a tankard full of porter. In his left a knotted club referring to contemporary policy. The rest done by Hogarth’s favourite dog Trump trampling the epistle which he treats contemptuously in a manner not natural to the canine species. Engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed in the plate: Designed by W. Hogarth. / Engraved by T. Cook. / London Published by G. G. & J. Robinson Paternoster Row June 1^st. 1800. 37.8 x 28.9 cm.

Hogarth catalogue by the Tate Gallery, 1971/72, 220 (2^nd H. state before the superposition of the palette by the print illustration, so the Cook version here, too) + Hogarth catalogue Zurich, 1983, 91 (7^th state with the superposition), both with illustration.

A  rarer  Sujet  made in the rush (August 1763) on a plate of self-portrait of 1749 of which he substituted his own head by that of Churchill. Several he added, the titles of the folio volumes were adapted: Great George Street A List of the Subscribers to the North Britons + A new way to Pay old Debts, a comedy by Massenger. Also “The Line of Beauty” fell victim to grinding in face of such a stout, lusty, and rough person as Churchill is described. The print illustration now superpositioning the palette no more taken over by Cook (“made himself a name as Hogarth engraver, too”, Thieme-Becker) than the subtext.

Churchill, a degenerated writing clergyman, was a partisan of John Wilkes for whose North Briton Gazette he worked and which is symbolized here as club plastered with lies, slaying the cartoon. But, as so often, the work grew far beyond its cause.

For once the removal of the “Beauty Line” led directly to the Analysis complex:

“ Hogarth regarded the likeness to a bear as more insulting than it may generally appear; for him there was an aesthetic antithesis between the earlier and later significance of the plate. In the ‘Analysis’ he wrote that ‘we may … lineally account for the ugliness of the … bear … which (is) totally devoid of this waving-line …’ ”

On the other hand to an intellectual reflection the exchange of the image done at a late moment:

“ There was nevertheless a quality akin to self-destruction in appropriating to his purpose the plate of his own portrait, which served as frontispiece to his collected works. ”

And ‘What may follow God knows. Finis.’ he meditated in this context. But

“ This was not quite the end of the story. Hogarth continued to work on his notes … and his concluding print ‘The Bathos’ was engraved in the following year” (April).

(all Cat. Tate Gallery S. 89.) ‘The Bruiser’ as second but last work thus.

Excellent print of fine light-dark-effects on solid paper. The presentation itself by the way – contrary to all other later Hogarth-editions in its original folio-size.
Offer no. 7,500 / EUR  496. / Export price EUR  471. (c. US$ 760.) + shipping

– – – The Same in Cook’s smaller repetition inscribed “C. Churchill” only. 1807. Image size 17.5 x 14 cm. – Trimmed inside the wide white margins.
Offer no. 8,898 / EUR  138. (c. US$ 223.) + shipping

William Hogarth (1697 London 1764). Hudibras’s First Adventure. The English Don Quichote, the gun drawn, in fight with a mob brandishing heavy sticks, among a one-legged fiddler and a showman with dancing bear. Engraving by Thomas Cook (ca. 1744 – London 1818). (1802.) 26.7 x 35.7 cm. – See also the complete description.
Offer no. 14,723 / EUR  185. (c. US$ 299.) + shipping

– – – The same in Cook’s smaller version with the subtext being replaced by the series title. 1807. Subject-size 13.9 x 17.1 cm. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark and this at three sides in the outer part slightly foxed and browned resp.
Offer no. 14,724 / EUR  60. (c. US$ 97.) + shipping

– – – The same in Hogarth’s own etching/engraving of 1726 with the Sayer address of the 1768 new edition and here in the impression from the plate reworked by the royal engraver James Heath (1757 London 1834, „earned applause early“, Nagler) about 1822 („Even these impressions became relatively rare today though“, Art Gallery Esslingen 1970). 27.4 x 34.6 cm^.. –Hogarth Catalog Zurich, 1983, ills. 3.
Offer no. 14,725 / EUR  148. (c. US$ 239.) + shipping

„ Danke für den wunderbaren (Ridinger-)Scan … der meine Argumentation zur Verwechslung in der Staffierung der Porzellane dokumentarisch bestens belegt. Darf ich um Ihre Zustimmung bitten, ihn in meiner Arbeit zeigen zu dürfen? “

(Herr J. R., 7. Juni 2004)