Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). (Elephants in different positions as have been seen … in 1741 … and drawn from life by P. F. Gudenus …). Set of four sheets. Etching + engraving. Inscribed: … in Kvpffer gebracht dvrch I. E. Ridinger in Avgspvrg M(D)CCXIIV (sic, recte MDCCXLIV/1744)and (2-4) P. F. v. G. ad viv. del. 1741. / I. E. Ridinger sculpsit A.V. resp., otherwise as before + below. 30.1-30.4 x 20.7-20.8 and, pl. 4, 20.6 x 30.2 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz (ills. I, plate 16) 537-540. – Watermark Great Fleur-de-lis (pl. 1) and Great Crown with initials A M in the inner ring (pl. 3) resp. – On strong laid paper with excellent wide margins of laterally 7 and 9-11.5 cm top + and bottom. The feeble, smoothed center fold perceptible in the white margin only. The title sheet quite minimally dusted as with regard to the preserved stitching almost inevitable.

and in respect of just the original crosswise stitching here as following :

Elephant Leader … (together title sheet) – An Elephant in highest harness to be seen from front … (by Thienemann intended for sheet 3) – A walking Elephant to be seen laterally … Th.: pl. 2) – An Elephant pegged up in the Lair, laying down, or standing up … .

According to a kind notice from the Gudenus family (2004) Philipp Ferdinand Baron von Gudenus is not involved as author of the drawings sent to Ridinger as imparted by Schwarz (1910) + Thieme-Becker XV (1922), 191, but Philipp Franz as a distant nephew, see NDB.

Offer no. 28,644

Howitt, Samuel (1765 – Somers Town 1822)? … Method of Taming Elephants. Elephant in the taming frame in landscape with trees. Aquatint for Edward Orme, London, in its  original  coloring. Inscribed: Published & Sold Jan^y. 1^st. 1813, by Edw^d. Orme, Bond St. London., otherwise as above. 17.8 x 23.3 cm.

(FOREIGN FIELD SPORTS XXI.) – 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 … ”. – Highly instructive representation, if one wishes to try it.

Additional  elephant  sheets  of  the  set  available .

Offer no. 11,766 / EUR  91. (c. US$ 144.) + shipping

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Vengeance of a Lowly on a Mighty is pernicious (or, so in the new edition of 1825, Powerless rage destroys itself).  An  elephant – for the Indian poets “symbol of wisdom and sympathy …

and  eight  elephants  support  the  universe ”

(Meyer’s Convers.-Lex., 4^th ed., V, 510/II), one of them together then the leader of the Grand Old Party, too, – travelling  on an educational trip  through  Europe  has hurt inadvertently a pertness little fox

Etching + engraving. (1744.) Inscribed: J. E. Ridinger inv. sculp. et excud., otherwise as above in German, French, and Latin. 33.6 x 25.1 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 771; Metzner-Raabe, Illustr. Fabelbuch, 1998, vol. II (Bodemann), 123.I. – Sheet 7 of the intellectually as optically exceedingly charming “Instructive Fables from the Animals’ Kingdom for Improvement of the Manners

and  especially  for  the  Instruction  of  (well , whose  do  you  think) ”

by which

“ Ridinger pursued a typical purpose of his epoch. A ‘Correction of Manners’ by the morale efficacy of art  William  Hogarth , almost of the same age as Ridinger, had tried – though in a quite different way – by his paintings and prints … But while Hogarth and Chodowiecki tried to gain recognition of their (same) ideas by satirical sets as ‘A Rake’s Progress’, 1735, … Ridinger tied up to the tradition of the animal fable (that is, so he himself, ‘since the hoary times of the ancient ages’) as especially suitable to him ”

(Stefan Morét, Ridinger Catalogue Darmstadt, 1999, p. 96).

And  specially  hereto  Ridinger  himself :

“ The elephant did a travel to Europe to become acquainted with the traditions there … and had the misfortune to tread off the tail of a young fox who was, by forwardness to view him, coming too near to him. The fox … set up a great shout and called to his folks to revenge this shame and insult, which

this  ( Non-European )

has done to him. All came to terms about this and considered how they could attack so that their revenge would be carried out. It did not lack of artfulness and rage, but, nevertheless, it went off badly … This went so to heart of an old fox that he began to shout at the top of his voice:

Oh  tyrannical  manifestation !

No , the  elephant  said , on  such  a  revenge  such  a  deserts  follows .”

Pictorially by the way Ridinger leaving, creating a new image type, once more tradition and field behind himself. For, so Ulrike Bodemann in Metzner-Raabe,

“ No  similarity  to  fable  illustrations  known  hitherto .

Enormous image sizes filled almost entirely by the representation of a central factor of the fable tale. Surroundings mostly dense, natural wood .”

And Regine Timm, ibid., vol. I, p. 171 :

“ In his large plates Ridinger … sometimes has included vegetable growth or rocks, too, dominantly in his illustrations indeed, but without decorative intention. The plants and rocks mean the thicket, the deserted loneliness of the forest, in which the strange tales among the animals happen. ”

Ridinger’s fable image then also a most highly important milestone within the “basic corpus of about 900 editions of illustrated fable books” up to Chagall’s Lafontaine folio with its 100 etchings worked 200 years later as downright a glaring light for the immortality of the fable illustration. – More  of  these  highly  interesting  Ridinger  fables  here  in  stock .

Chronologically interesting in this connection interesting that on the other side of the channel in 1726 John Gay, famous-notorious for his “Beggars Opera” (Brecht, Threepenny Opera!), by his “Fables” had laid before “the most important achieved hitherto by English poets in this kind” (Meyers Konvers.-Lex., 4^th ed., VI, 960/II).

The watercoloured original pen drawing in the same direction from the Weigel sale (not in the 1869 catalogue of the bequeathed drawings), figuring as “Splendid, completely executed water colour” per lot 110 on the 1890 Ridinger sale at Wawra in Vienna, now in a Bavarian Ridinger collection. That drawing in reverse used for the transfer on the copper-plate was on the market in the 1980s. And a executed study of the elephant in the 1990s in America.

Splendid  early  impression . – Above mostly trimmed on platemark, otherwise throughout with a little margin additionally to the fine white platemark itself. Brown stipples in the left ear of the elephant.
Offer no. 12,505 / EUR  649. / Export price EUR  617. (c. US$ 978.) + shipping

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). An  American  Bison  as he fights off the attacking  Bears . In light grotto with outlook on splendid width, interrupted by two rocky formations,

Etching + engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1730 Augsburg 1780). Inscribed: XVIII. / Ioh. Elias Ridinger, inv. et del. / M. El. Ridinger, sc. A. V., otherwise in German as above. 26 x 35.9 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 361. – Sheet XVIII of the 46-sheet set “To the Special Events and Incidents at the Hunt” (“The rarest set of Ridinger’s sporting line engravings”, Schwerdt 1928) etched exclusively by Johann Elias’ eldest after predominantly fatherly designs.

At which not only after realization here Martin Elias’ importance for the Ridinger œuvre is much larger than that of an engaged co-worker as engraver only. Already at an age of thirty he just acted as a spiritus rector behind the backstage ensuring that sets were completed or, as here, edited posthumously.

And as Wolf Stubbe (Joh. El. Ridinger, 1966, pp. 16 f. + pl. 34), going in medias res, celebrates Th. 722, The Wild Bison and the Crocodile, from the Fights of Killing Animals as an artistic zenith of the late work in respect of its luminous efficiency, he pays tribute together, because judging by the plate, not the drawing, to Martin Elias as the etcher/engraver of that work. An aspect illustrating deeply the Ridinger team-work.

The powerful scenery – God bless America! – in

(“If they are missing, so this points to later impressions”, Thienemann)

with  provenance  Von  Behr  of  the  House  Stellichte

assumedly purchased directly from the Ridingers between 1768 + before 1779, so just at times of foundation of the United States. The German Von Behr family itself reaching back far into the centuries. I. a. already in 1470 – 29 years before Columbus! – it was enfeoffed with the water castle in Stellichte, Lower Saxony, as the ancestral seat up to date :

“ On the way to Visselhövede … the forestlands of the masters von Behr are passed through … The family built the richly adorned mansion-church just beside of the water mill in (1608-)1610 ”

(Rainer Hendricks, Travel Guide?!? … in Schauenfeld Communications of the Society of Arno Schmidt Readers, vol. XIV, 2001, issue 2/3).

The sandstone portal of the mansion church with figures and arms of the family von Behr. And furthermore :

“ After the unpretentiousness of its outside the splendour of the inside surprises with its painstakingly carved and painted wood decoration … To the splendid equipment since its origin belongs the rich altarpiece … (etc.) On the western gallery we find the organ built by organ builder Marten de Mare in splendidly, richly ornamented prospect … Of the tombs and epitaphs … is especially to be mentioned the historic epitaph for the founder and his young deceased wife of the year 1615 … ”

(tourist information).

This then the social, economic and – cultural environment of the provenance here.

In mint condition with three-sided 2.5-5 cm wide margin, above only 5 mm (here some unessential little glue spots + smallest stitch holes) round, however, a platemargin of 1 cm of its own. Left lower corner of the paper margin with a acid-freely backed little dog’s ear.
Offer no. 14,474

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). Four Prints of an Election. Set of 4 sheets engravings by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinx(t). / T. Cook, sculp(t). / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees(,) & Orme(,) (May 1^st. 1807 – Oct. 1^st. 1809). Subject size 14.6-15.5 x 18.8-19.7 cm.

1. Humours of an Election Entertainment. – 2. Canvassing for Votes. – 3. Polling at the Hustings. – 4. Chairing the Members.

Hogarth’s  famous set full of contemporary allusions – belonging to his “most mature creations” (Thieme-Becker) and here in Cook’s small repetition – is

Its origin in the country of parliamentarism gives it a special importance, because together a warning as, inspired by events in Oxfordshire during the elections of 1754, published 1755-58, the portrait of not only corrupt politicians and parties but of a rotten community as such. After all besides the usual feast and gorge documented on all plates as part of every election in Hogarth’s time bribery,

“ … first pursued systematically by Sir Robert Walpole and the Whigs, (was) practiced still far more scandalous than later; so it remained during the second half of the past century and till our days … Because then the possession of a parliamentary place was frequently regarded as a simple trade speculation, as the elected sold … his voice to the government for a sum of money, a sinecure, a post or a delivery, and thereupon could be re-elected by a  rotten borough, a procedure which was so much easier as the minister Walpole raised such a bribery of the members of the parliament – ‘every man has his price’ – literally to a system of government. Also Hogarth’s plates here give allusions of this ”

(Lichtenberg). – And Thieme-Becker sum up:

“ … a delightful satire on the vice of bribery

and  the  demoralization  of  the  people  tied  to  that . ”

But beyond the fullness of allusions Hogarth puts a special stamp on the abjectness and venal partiality of the whole proceedings. As these plates, too, are together caricatures or parodies of classic – and by this pure and clean – works from the Renaissance and Baroque:

So the first leaf up to the subtext – not included in this version anymore – “He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me” after Leonardo’s Last Supper. Followed by print two with the farmer being bribed by both sides as inversion of The Choice of Hercules. The election itself taking up Tizian’s Presentation of the Virgin while the last leaf, the triumphal march of the elected new member of the parliament even alludes to Alexander the Great in Le Brun’s Victory of Alexander over Darius. Whereby the imperial eagle there had to give way to a goose here. Which by that what it lets fall even anticipates the new member’s contribution to the parliamentary debate.

This embedding in the canon of timeless art giving the set together and contrary to Lichtenberg’s reading that the pictures and their details were be intelligible only from and in their own time

their  own  timelessness  valid  over  the  centuries .

Which is even stressed by Hogarth’ often ambiguous or – depending on time and position – differently interpretable sarcasm. – See also the following “A Country Inn Yard”, especially its analogous version 8,941.
Offer no. 8,895 / EUR  375. / Export price EUR  356. (c. US$ 565.) + shipping

– – – The same. Set of 4 sheets steel engravings. C. 1850. Inscribed. 12.9-13.5 x 15.8-16.2 cm.
Offer no. 12,169 / EUR  249. (c. US$ 395.) + shipping

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). A Country Inn Yard (or The Election Procession in the Yard). The last travellers enter the overland stagecoach, the postilion already took the driver’s seat, and the landlady acting as postmaster urges for hurry by heavily ringing the bell. In the front a hunched small postilion asks a corpulent gentleman changing coaches here for a gratuity for the previous stage. Engraving. Inscribed: Design’d and Engrav’d by W. Hogarth. — Publish’d According to Act of Parliament. 1747. 22 x 31 cm.

Nagler 30. – After the painting of 1747. – Independently of the rich postal scene the actual happenings – in addition to the Four Prints of an Election before – concern the mockery of a

“ candidate  defeated  in  a  parliamentary  election ”

whose stuffed figure – as already in regard of the Duke of Newcastle on plate 1 of the Election set – is carried round in a procession of the opposing party. This all the more annoyingly as the defeat is caused by formalities, that is the yet nearly missed age of the candidate, and thus was foreseeable. Accordingly unwillingly an agent of the unfortunate – a print of the Act against bribery and corruption in his pocket – foots the bill for the wasted election entertainment to the landlord.

“ The well-known plate … shows with Dickens’ humour a comfortable depiction of rural petty bougoisie ”

(Thieme-Becker XVII, p. 297, 2).

Impression on strong paper from the plate reworked by the royal engraver James Heath (1757 London 1834) about 1822.
Offer no. 7,803 / EUR  135. (c. US$ 214.) + shipping

– – The same in engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinxt. / T. Cook & Son sc. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, May 1^st. 1808. Subject size 12.2 x 17.1 cm.

Cook’s smaller version, engraved together with his son. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark.
Offer no. 8,941 / EUR  60. (c. US$ 95.) + shipping

– – The same in engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840). Inscribed: W. Hogarth pinx. 1747. / E. Riepenhausen sc. 21.3 x 26.7 cm.

Riepenhausen’s  works  after  Hogarth  ( “ very  valuable ” ) belong to his major work and are partially preferred to those by Hogarth. – In regard of the especially fine, buff paper supposedly an impression for a special edition about 1830. – Margins somewhat age-spotted. Equally the image itself slightly.
Offer no. 7,804 / EUR  118. (c. US$ 187.) + shipping

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Politician. The politician reading the newspaper with the candle held near to his eyes for better light while not becoming aware of how it burns his hat. Engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinxt. / T. Cook sculpt. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, July 1^st. 1809., otherwise as before. Image size 17.8 x 14.3 cm.

Cook’s smaller version. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark. – Barely perceptible slight fold in the lower image/platemark.

Published posthumously only the drawing alludes to the circumstances about 1730. The politician – by the way the then known lace dealer Tibson – looking fascinatedly at the continental events reported on in the newspaper while disregarding his own nearest problems indicated by his burning hat.
Offer no. 9,004 / EUR  189. (c. US$ 300.) + shipping

“ Thank you very much for your prompt and very cooperative handling of this order. I very much look forward to seeing the map ”

(Mr. D. R.-H., January 26, 2005)