The  AHA!  Event  of  the  Month

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Hunting or Scent Dog. Chained up lying before its dog-house with look at the beholder. Shrubbery + fence accessories. Colored etching + engraving. Inscribed: Ridinger, fec. / Canes Sagaces / Jagd oder Spuhr Hund. Un limier. / Familia IV. Fünfzähige. 31.7 x 20.5 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 1057. – From the unnumbered “Colored Kingdom of the Animals” finished posthumously in 1768. – Wide-margined with watermark C & I Honig. – The new edition published about 1824 by Engelbrecht/Herzberg in Augsburg from shortened plates under omission of the Ridinger signature, but addition of numbering advertised as well colored as black/white, but became known not just to Thienemann, but also till now here in the latter version only.
Offer no. 14,805 / EUR  435. / Export price EUR  413. (c. US$ 670.) + shipping

The  Four  Seasons  of  the  Hounds

– – – The Four Seasons of the Hounds. Set of 4 sheet in etching with engraving. Supposedly beginning of the 1740s. Inscribed: avec privil. de Sa Maj. Imp. / J. E. Ridinger inv. peint grave(è) et excud à(a) augs(Augs)., otherwise with sheet title + quatrain in German-French parallel text. 46.5-46.8 x 34.8 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 105-108; Nagler 25; Catalogue Weigel XXVIII (1857), Ridinger appendix, before 10, B; Helbing XXXIV (Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger, 1900), 251 (Th. 106 in later impression) + 252 (trimmed up to the subject); Schwerdt III, 136; Blüchel, Die Jagd (1996) II, 78 f. (ills. Th. 105 + 108). – Coppenrath (1889/90) had the spring sheet only.

with watermark Stylized Arabic Four together with C + R at the vertical beam (ll. 2-4) as not documented here so far and regarded as somewhat later, supposedly beginning of the 19^th century. Weigel only globally distinguishes between “Old impressions on laid paper” + “New impression”, that is non-laid paper, and already ten years earlier per aggregate number 16545 (issue XIX, 1847) if applicable he just notes “old now rarely available impressions”.

Margins on three sides 5-7 cm wide, on the right 2.5-3.5 and, Th. 106, 1.5-3.5 cm resp. In the upper outside margin each with four technical pinholes. Upper + right margins with traces of red edges for the origin from an old album. – Isolated feeble tiny margin foxspots, the outside edges mostly with traces of former mounting in frames, perceptible from the front on the left side and at three lower and one upper edge only. All with three smoothed horizontal folds each invisible from the front. The autumn sheet with an unobtrusive diagonal fold running through the subject upper right, that of the winter with two of these in the white upper and lower margin resp., the latter of which inconspicuously reaching into the subtext. In short, of very fine general condition.

The Spring. / Le Printems.

“ The hares are catched a lot at spring time, / Before when they have moved into the seeded field: / But when with greatest rage the hounds set on it, / So the protector has concern they do not tear it up. ”

Sitting over the hare he especially has to make himself respected by two of the four. – The painterly preparatory drawing in reverse furnished with marks of trace and red chalk at the back following here below. – “The spring sheet of the set of seasons by Ridinger shows the low hunt for hares” (Blüchel).

“ In summer in the stout often the stag is bagged, / By the par force hounds which are ordered to this, / And when it is killed then that it stretches all legs, / The hunter tired there enjoys a pipe tobacco. ”

“ A rich sheet. Scene in the wood. Quite in front lies a very long rifle, above of it the bagged (stag of twelve points). A striped hound puts his fore paws on it and looks … at his master … Besides we see five other hounds in different positions ” (Thienemann).

The Autumn. / L’Automne.

“ Because for heron hawking the autumn is the best time, / The falconer also gets set and ready, / And keeps ready for this upshot for time and hour, / The search just as grey, water spaniel hound. ”

“ An even richer sheet. A falconer … holds with the left a feed before the falcon sitting on the right. Five hounds stand around him … and would like to get something, too. Another (hooded) falcon looks at the birds below it, among which a grey heron, a wild goose, a teal and others ” (Thienemann).

The Winter. / L’Hiver.

“ In winter the bear has the greatest risk, / For at such time his fur is of very fine hair, / The Pole chases him on all sides, / But the mastiff serves the best for it. ”

“ Three mastiffs have killed a bear, but we see what strain it did to them … There a Pole with the spike shows above. He seems to have gained a little from the physiognomy of the bear biters and looks at the killed bag ” (Thienemann).

Ridinger “recommends in winter the bear hunt with the mastiff as practiced by the Poles” (Blüchel).

And here then the recommendation not “to give the slip” to this fine trouvaille – 1991/92 for the last time a copy of it was handled here. For, Ridinger once more,

“ The  care  of  the  hounds  let  be  much  recommended  to  yourself … ”

(so under the title vignette of the “Fair Game hounded by the Different Kinds of Hounds”, Th. 139-160, currently available here in a truffled and also otherwise absolute exception copy; see below).
Offer no. 28,843  /  price on request

– – – The Spring of the Hounds. Washed brush drawing over pencil. Inside the subject below left inscribed with pale pencil: Joh. Elias Ridinger inv. et del. 438-440 x 336 (subject size 426-429 x 336) mm.

in reverse to sheet 1 – Th. 105, illustrated in Blüchel, Die Jagd, II, p. 79 – of the “Four Seasons of the Hounds” supposed for the early 40s, furnished with marks of trace and, at the back, red chalk, on strong, but not heavy laid paper with watermark “IV” as known for the time and proven here for Ridinger, e. g., for his 1723 drawing “Alexander the Great at the Hyphasis 326” just as for two sheets of the set of the monkeys most likely published colored only by the sons as second edition.

Of best condition except for a pinhead-small hole and, predominantly at the back, seven marginal traces of former mounting in spots on a sheet removed only by now (on this by old hand in italics as inscription in the center “Coursing” and on the right “Ridinger”). In the center of the narrow white subfield of the drawing itself a “20.” in pencil as supposed inventory number of a former owner and therefore mark of origin of a more comprehensive collection of drawings.

The  also  by  its  size  marvelous  drawing

for the opening sheet of this wanted rich set. – Contrary to the etching the pack leader’s tip of the tail a little less formed and the waterhound’s left foreleg concealed under the belly.

To the complex of the hounds’ Four Seasons Thienemann (1856, portfolio 2, e, page 275) was only acquainted with the likewise washed drawing of the Summer sheet (Th. 106) from the Weigel stock, which is, however, not anymore in Weigel’s Catalogue of the Bequeathed Drawings and Prints of 1869 (see there pp. 197 ff.). Then there was, also to the Summer sheet, the likewise large-sized and washed skeleton study to its stag in the “Fine Collection of Drawings and Engravings of Joh. Elias Ridinger from the Possession of a Wellknown Collector” sold by Wawra in Vienna in 1890 (no. 67). And 1900 in Helbing’s huge Ridinger catalogue (Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger, XXXIV, 1547) the “brilliant pen and ink drawing in outline” of the same size to the Fall sheet. Here finally known, too, the equally large one of Winter. And the

completely  executed , ultimate  one  of  the  Spring  sheet

now present here after long absence from the market – to the best of the knowledge here it was sold last in spring 1969 – in finest condition.

Extraordinarily charming finally the duplication of the master’s working process on the transfer to the copper plate in the form of the already mentioned red chalking and tracing, the latter down to sub-parts as not used generally. By this, however, allowing the that wanted, as famous as precious “view over the shoulder”.
Offer no. 28,878  /  price on request

– – – Water Hounds, Pomeranian, and Poodle Dogs. A group of four before light shrubbery. Colored etching + engraving. Inscribed: Ridinger, fec. / Canes Aquatici. / Wasser Hunde, Pom(m)er und Budel Hunde. Barbets. / Familia IV. Fünfzähige. 31.6 x 20.3 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 1060. – From  the unnumbered  “Colored Kingdom of the Animals” finished posthumously in 1768 as at the outset, but with large fleur-de-lis watermark.

Thienemann: “… a large and a small poodle (without resemblance to the ones of today whose ancestors were just hunting all-round dogs especially for the hunt on water-fowl), a real pomeranian, and an otter hound.”
Offer no. 14,806 / EUR  390. / Export price EUR  371. (c. US$ 601.) + shipping

Langlumé (lithographer provable in Paris before 1822, last 1824). Hound + Pointer. With stretched body and in stretched running resp. at work. 2 sheets. Colored chalk lithographs. 21-23.5 x 26-28.5 cm. – Thieme-Becker XXII, 351.

Offer no. 14,529 / EUR  299. / Export price EUR  284. (c. US$ 460.) + shipping

Co-Founder  of  the  Family  Dynasty  of  Karlsbad  Glass  Cutters

Pfeiffer, Josef Anton (1807 Karlsbad c. 1870). The female hound with six puppies in a strawlaid shed. On the right low wooden water trough.

with partial white glazing. On the back inscribed in ink by own hand: J. Anton Pfeiffer / 1825. 40 x 55 cm.

Thieme-Becker XXVI, 527. – Youth work Josef Anton’s, who together with his elder brother Anton Heinrich represents the start of the family clan of Karlsbad glass cutters. See hereto also Pazaurek, Gläser der Empire und Biedermeierzeit, Leipsic 1923. – Lower right in pencil by different hand: Ant. Pfeiffer 1825. – Top with narrow paper margin, else trimmed at, partly just inside the border line. At the right margin at three places traces of former mounting reaching up to 5 mm into the image.
Offer no. 14,831 / EUR  785. / Export price EUR  746. (c. US$ 1209.) + shipping

Wintter, Joseph Georg (1751 Munich 1789). Three Dogs, among them Hound + Bulldog, before Kennel disputing over Bones. Etching. Inscribed: Jos Geo: Wintter inv fecc et excc . 10.9 x 17.5 cm.

Niemeyer 125, II. – Obviously not belonging to any of the Nagler sets if not belonging to Niem. 3-14. – From the comprehensive 44-sheet Augsburg edition on buff paper Schwerdt III, 190, a ( “Rare” ) of earliest 1821. The wonderful quality of its impressions discloses the small editions and caused Schwerdt, not knowing the chronological factor, to assume proofs before the letter in many cases. But already on occasion of the here not otherwise proven 137-sheet edition Weigel 21336 stated in 1857: “Most sheets very rare”.

His “etchings are fine and stand in their execution between those by Hollar and Riedinger. In 1784 W. became electoral Court and Hunting Engraver” (Nagler in vol. III, no. 68, of his Dictionary of Monogramists of 1863 and on his part additionally referring to the rarity of these fine plates).
Offer no. 13,185 / EUR  135. (c. US$ 219.) + shipping

– – – The Lion teaching the Three Dogs. Etching. Inscribed: JG Wintter inv 1784 . 4.9 x 5.8 cm.

Niemeyer 9, II. – From Nagler 21. – According to Robels, Frans Snyders, 1989, p. 43, besides monkey, lamb, and pig the lion was one of the four elements dating back to early Christian sources. – From the comprehensive edition of earliest 1821 as before.
Offer no. 13,057 / EUR  99. (c. US$ 160.) + shipping

Tischbein II, Johann Heinrich (Haina, Hesse, 1742 – Cassel 1808). Walkire, a Hound. Broadsided standing to the left and full attention. Etching in outline. 15.7 x 20 cm.

Sheet 55 of the 1827 Tischbein set of the “Fair Game” Nagler 44 – Lindner 11.2083.01; Schwerdt III, 173 – as a compilation mounted in points of throughout old till earlier impressions. – On laid paper. – Trimmed on platemark.
Offer no. 5,262 / EUR  60. (c. US$ 97.) + shipping

– – – A Hound, lying. Etching in outline. 10.9 x 17 cm.

Sheet 56 of the aforesaid suite. – Trimmed within the platemark. – From the collection of legendary railroad king DR. STROUSBERG, Berlin.
Offer no. 5,263 / EUR  60. (c. US$ 97.) + shipping

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Par force Hunter with the pack. Postcard in rotogravure after Thienemann 115 by O. Felsing, court copperplate printing office, Charlottenburg (Berlin). Same place, Nationaler Verlag Wilhelm Felsing, ca. 1900-1918. 13.8 x 9.2 cm.

Unused “ARTIST POSTCARD” after the sujet of the Falconers set etched by Martin Elias R. – “He rides an English horse and blows the bugle. The pack accompanies him solemnly and quietly”.
Offer no. 28,455 / EUR  29. (c. US$ 47.) + shipping

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). In 1734 this Good Trained Pointer has been drawn from  Nature  during its Action inside the Pheasantry by the  Imperial  Pleasure Seat Nymphenburg at Munich (the castle itself above behind a large fountain). Etching with engraving. Inscribed: J. E. Ridinger fec. et excud. 1744 , otherwise in German as before. 37.3 x 28.7 cm.

Sheet 32 (Thienemann + Schwarz 274) of the “Representation of the Wondrous Stags and Other Animals”.

Elected and

crowned  by  his  brother  Clemens  August , Elector  of  Cologne ,

as third and last of the Wittelsbacher he was already at Frankfort on the Main in 1742,

but the quarrels attended with that had him kept back there.

Ridinger showed him his reverence. Only one year later the glory of these few years oppressive for the emperor as well as for Bavaria and Germany ended by death. But with the etching of 1744

Ridinger  had  inscribed  himself  into  the  book  of  history .

Ref. no. 14,953 / in stock – not catalogued / request description & offer

Augsburg’s  Cembra  Nut – Immortalized  by  Ridinger

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Small Pointer before Quails. In front of a pedestal consisting of arabesques crowned with the Augsburg coat-of-arms cembra nut amidst sumptuous landscape. In front right grain-field. Etching and engraving. Inscribed: J. E. Ridinger inv. del. sc. et exc. A. V., otherwise in German as above. 29.2 x 26.1 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 104. – Final sheet of the unnumbered 4-sheet set of the Pointers,

The old written bistre numbering “26” upper right to the opinion here by Ridinger himself. Schwarz 104a records as variant a copy numbered in print there with “86” as hint for its use as sheet 86 of the “Presentation of the Wondrous Stags and other Animals” instead of the otherwise regular “Well trained Pointer as it stands before Partridges” as work of 1766 by the son Martin Elias after his father’s design of 1757 as variant of the 3^rd sheet of the set of Pointers (“Large Pointer standing for Partridges”, Th. 103). – Watermark noticeable in outline.
Offer no. 13,190 / EUR  445. / Export price EUR  423. (c. US$ 686.) + shipping

Following  Steel  Engravings  about  1835  with full platemark (not measuring with if not stated else), as rather more seldom for steel engravings, and left-sided stitch margin.

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767) – After. A Hound. Standing in full-size before landscape staffage interestingly fixing a gadfly sitting before it. In the same direction to Thienemann 734, belonging to the “Neue(n) Thier Reis Büchl” of 1728. Subject/plate size 18.2 x 23.5 cm.

Offer no. 14,821 / EUR  84. (c. US$ 136.) + shipping

– – – – Two Hounds. Before the kind of a tent with landscape staffage to the left. Sleeping the speckled one in front, behind it watchfully straightened up and growling the other. In the same direction to Thienemann 735, belonging as before. Subject/plate size as before. – The  impressive  motif . – See the illustration Schwarz I, p. 92.
Offer no. 14,820 / EUR  89. (c. US$ 144.) + shipping

Cooper, S. (the animal painter Thomas Sidney C. ?, Canterbury 1803 – Vernon Holme near C. 1902) – After. Russian Wolf Catcher. In front large to the left before a lumber yard to the right with laborer scenery at the bank of a wide river enlivened by a sailboat + rowing-boats with the silhouette of a municipal district vis-à-vis dominated by a dome cathedral and a stone-bridge (Saint Petersburg with Peter and Paul Cathedral and Petersburg Bridge?). By Johann Siebert as before. Inscribed: XXV / S. Cooper pinx. / I. Siebert sc. Nbg., otherwise as before in German. 16.9 x 20.3 cm.
Offer no. 14,823 / EUR  79. (c. US$ 128.) + shipping

Pointer, A Spanish. Struck the bag, the hunter only coming nearer. 17.2 x 20.3 cm. – The letter rather pale, but not the subject itself.
Offer no. 14,811 / EUR  69. (c. US$ 112.) + shipping

Spaniel, The / Snipe Hunt. With the hunter pointing at, the hound jumping forward. 17 x 20.2 cm. – Two slight smudges in the additionally white paper margin below.
Offer no. 14,812 / EUR  74. (c. US$ 120.) + shipping

Pointer standing Black Grouses. With hunter + hunting-hand each on horseback along with a further hound. 17.6 x 20.2 cm.
Offer no. 14,813 / EUR  72. (c. US$ 117.) + shipping

Setter. Pointer with the hunter coming along. Engraved by Christian Daumerlang (also Daumenlang, Wöhrd near Nuremberg 1812 – Nbg. 1851) after an anonymous copy. 17.1 x 20 cm.
Offer no. 14,814 / EUR  72. (c. US$ 117.) + shipping

Dachshunds, English (Therriers). Three of them and a badger trying to sidle off. Engraved by F. Hirchenhein(m?). Inscribed: XXIII / Hirchenhein (elsewhere Hirchenheim) sc:, otherwise as before in German. 17 x 20 cm.
Offer no. 14,822 / EUR  72. (c. US$ 117.) + shipping

Solo Catcher, The. Right in front portraitlike large hound with the captured hare

while left-sided placed back the field of the horsemen accompanies the hare hunting still going on. 17.4 x 20 cm.
Offer no. 14,819 / EUR  74. (c. US$ 120.) + shipping

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Innocence suppressed by an Invent Pretext. A hare escaped from three dogs on a rock falling a victim to a wonderfully feathered falcon swooping down. Etching and engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1730 Augsburg 1780). After 1767. Inscribed in the plate: J. El. Ridinger. inv: et del. / M. El. Ridinger. sc. et exc: A. V., otherwise as above in German, Latin, and French. 33.5 x 24.9 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 784; Metzner-Raabe, Illustr. Fabelbuch, 1998, vol. II (Bodemann), 123.I. – Sheet 20 of the Fables. – Quite wonderful impression probably watermarked WANGEN along with a figurative label. – With 5-27 mm wide margins all-around. – The repeated “.” after Ridinger not quoted by Schwarz. Instead of the “:” after “inv” here there only a full stop and instead of the “:” after FABUL mentioned by Thienemann + Schwarz for plates X ff. here always only a full stop.

as the final one of the intellectually as optically exceedingly charming “Instructive Fables from the Animals’ Kingdom for Improvement of the Manners and especially for Instruction of the Youth” 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).

Whereby Ridinger in this case aims at yet quite another object, that is a social-political one. As already the title

“ The  Innocence  suppressed  by  an  Invent  Pretext ”

given the tenor, so it says in the separately printed text by Brockes (1680 Hamburg 1747)

“ Enough  one  lais  the  blame  on  the  poor , / What  never  he  had  done . /
The  fresh  rage  of  the  mighty  birds /
hits  very  often  still  the  weak  hare !”

And Thienemann interpreting: “The falcon speaks to the hare and this replies:

‘ Wait, I will teach you to lead the hounds to my nest, for that they will rob me of my young ones!’ / ‘How could we approach ourselves to your aerie without wings?’ / ‘Yea, yea, always you think on my ruin, do you not have wanted to sell me to the hunter two years ago and badly cursed my young ones?’ / ‘There I does not still was born.’ / ‘So it was your mother. O no longer I can tolerate this bad species.’

After this (the falcon) gripped and lacerated the little hare, which dying still cried: ‘Oh, how it is easy for the malice to suppress the innocence!’ … ‘Enough one lais the blame on the poor …’”.

The sentence staying in closest context to the denouncing of the system of absolutism of all times expressed by Brockes/Ridinger by sheets Th. 716-719 of the set Fights of killing Animals. See hereto the 1998 Dresden Address – The Minimized Ridinger.

Artistically beyond all it at the same time, too, creating a new image type, leaving, 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. ”

The set consists of 20 plates, of which Johann Elias, however, has published only the first sixteen. Presumably by stylistic scruple. For with the four last, etched/engraved only by his eldest, Martin Elias, and published posthumously, he gives up the superabundance of the previous, his moreover only newly worked fable conception, in favour of a now also for himself thoroughly newly, sovereignly formulated large flat clearness (exemplarily for this especially plts. 17 + 20) with which to grapple with he obviously has shied at the end though. And where to follow him was impossible for Thienemann, too, still one hundred years later (“have less artistic value, but are nevertheless estimable, and their rarity is to be regretted”). What here, however, is seen as a remarkably further developed artistic expressiveness. Culminating just in the fascination to have created not only a new fable image, but this, once more in itself, developed further to a new level.

Comparable in this connection, as quoted repeatedly by Ridinger, it may be pointed out to Watteau and here to his “Party in the Open/Park” in Berlin, on which Pierre Rosenberg notes: “… the Berlin painting is

(Exhibition Catalogue Watteau, Washington/Paris/Berlin 1984/85, p. 415).

Relating to Ridinger quite exemplary his “Memento Mori” Schwarz 1426 worked in mezzotint, for that three states could described here for the first time which document a radicalized spiritualization of the civic fine composition of the picture originally Dutch anchored. In this case promoted by the necessity of retouchings of the mezzotint plate technically conditioned extremely fast wearing off which according to the expert Sandrart (1675) only permits 50-60 good impressions.

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.

That Ridinger had created his set originally substantially more voluminously is proven by his preparatory drawing sold here to the 20^th fable inscribed by him with “Fab 31”, that to the 19^th inscribed with “Fabel 29.” (Weigel, 1869, no. 384), and that further one numbered with “30” known to Thienemann, which has been unconsidered like other, unnumbered, ones, too.

The great rarity of the four supplementary sheets here as practically programmed known to literature since Thienemann’s statement of 1856: they “make themselves scarce, are not to be found already in some older editions, and have been left out completely in the newest, what however is to be regretted” (p. 151).

Accordingly then the 1889 catalogue of the Coppenrath Collection on the 20-sheet copy: “Fine chief set … Rare”. And in 1900 Helbing qualified in his 1554-item Ridinger catalogue (XXXIV): “The last (4) numbers are of highest rarity”. And while except for 12 + 13 he owned besides a complete copy multiple single copies of the first sixteen while of the last four only 17 + 19 in one additionally copy each. On the market till today then almost only the 16-sheet basic set.

After all the different printing states of the title, documenting the repeated editions, most beautiful proof for the success of the work, which obviously has reached his special target group, the youth.
Offer no. 12,514 / EUR  1007. / Export price EUR  957. (c. US$ 1551.) + shipping

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Fair Game Hounded by the Different Kinds of Hounds. With annotations how such are hunted, attacked, catched, held fast, brought down, and partly throttled by them … presented and edited by Johann Elias Ridinger painter and engraver, director of the Augsburg Academy, too, in the year 1761. Set of 22 sheets.

(28.4-28.8 x 24.8-25.3 cm) in the mixed technique of etching + engraving typical for Ridinger and his time.

Ruby  red  morocco

with 4 imitated ribs, 2 dark green back-plates, gilt two-piece title on the front + Ridinger-stag-vignette on the backcover, gilt lines on both, and ridinger handlung niemeyer (ridinger gallery niemeyer) on the inner frontcover below, all in 23.5 carat,

– traced back here far beyond Thieme-Becker (vol. XXVIII, 1933, p. 308) seamlessly directly to the master’s estate itself and therewith correcting Thienemann who in 1856 declared the plates of this set as being deprived – the

original  printing-plate  to  the  title

in reverse (28.6 x 25.5 cm) as removable solitaire laid into the frontcover under polycarbonate glass (more resistant to aging + UV light than Plexiglas, but equally sensitive to scratches). Above the artist’s name and below the hall mark as uniqueness

and on the inner frontcover ridinger handlung niemeyer, all gilt-tooled as before.

Thienemann + Schwarz 139-160; Weigel, Kunstlager-Cat., XXVIII, 13 A (?, perhaps intermediate state, of A-C); Nagler 16; Coppenrath pt. II, 1464; Schwerdt III (1928), 137 (“An interesting series”). – Illustrations: Schwarz I, plt. VIII; Stubbe, Ridinger, 1966, plts. 14-16; Ridinger Cat. Kielce, 1997, pp. 38-41.

what means,

while before binding the left-sided clean cut with practically nevertheless the full 6 cm margin like on the right let think that two sheets each may have been printed on one sheet of paper being in accordance with the size of Ridinger’s largest prints, Th. 67/68, printed from one plate. In the absence of every traces of tacks and marbling the set was obviously never bound. Only the title, printed differently on especially buff laid paper, cut also on top and so with only 53 cm a little shorter.

For comparison :

Schwerdt’s copy reached with only 44.5 x 29.8 cm already the top of its boar-spike !

Isolated typographic watermarks. – Outer margins of the title slightly smudgy and right-sided somewhat teared. Three sheets with original small defects in a outermost marginal corner. Slight trace of squeezing in the white outer margin of XI, a smoothed diagonal fold in left and lower margin touching still the outermost white corner of the plate and a further one, confined to the outer white upper margin, in XII. The general squeezing of the paper of VII predominantly confined on the right half and here noticeable somewhat disturbingly only out of the subject.

Contents :

The European Bison – The Bear (“there is a good engraving of a bear fighting with hounds, pl. 14”, Stubbe) – The Elk – The Red Stag – The Wild Sow or Boar – The Wolf – The White Fir-Stag (Fallow-Deer) – The Wild Swan (“surely the rarer Whooper Swan”) – The Lynx – The Reindeer – The Roe – The Chamois – The Fox – The Beaver – The Otter – The Wildcat – The Hare – The Badger – The Marten – The Polecat, Squirrel and Weasel – Wild Ducks .

Thienemann :

“ Thus a theme with 21 variations … What a variety, what a truth in the expression of emotions! Yes, indeed, he is in fact an animal mind-painter.  Hence  his works speak to us so exceedingly,  hence  we cannot take our eyes off them,  hence  he sticks … always new, valuable and esteemed … One of the later works of Ridinger, but completely done himself alone … ”

On top the figuration closed in an arch. – With 9-13-line subtext as well to the game itself as to selection + action of the different races of its assailants. In this instructiveness quite in the sense of Stubbe, who quotes in respect of the Par force Hunting as a further late work (p. 30):

“ … and their subtexts … bring together the pleasant satisfaction

which  good  informations, developed  thoroughly, can  give .

A  life  full  of  hunting  experience ,

a knowledge, earned in many years by conceivable alert attention, of the causes and considerations which lead to the single steps and hunting practices qualify the artist to define all kinds of hunting

not  only  after  their  execution ,

but  especially  out  of  their  reasons .

This happens … in all shortness … the limited space under the subjects come up to intensive, but easily understandable annotations in engraved writing. ”

And so it is the quite extraordinary satisfaction and joy here together to be able not alone to not just present anew this

but in company with the  original  plate of the title – worked by the master himself alone and sheltered from environmental influences by varnish – and the widemarginedness crowned by being uncut on three sides as a truly

grand  et  unique  exemplaire  de  luxe

for elitist placing. As a provocatingly exclusive sovereign eye-catcher, enviedly reflecting the noblesse of the house. Shortly,

on  account  of  its  beauty  as  an  overall  work  of  art

you will look at this incomparable “ – Le Grand  Exemplaire – “ again and again full of inner touch.
Offer no. 28,822  /  price on request

(Mandate of Frederick August Duke of Saxony Against the Running About of the Dogs and the Hydrophobia in General and What is to do against it. Along with the annexes “Cause of the Hydrophobia of the Dogs and the Symptoms of such Rabies” and “Instruction How one has to behave in Case of a Bite of Rabid Dogs and How one can take Precautions against the Sad After-Effects”). Published Dresden September 7, 1782. Fol. (34.8 x 21 cm). With two vignettes in woodcut. 12 ll. With the printed ducal signature along with the “L(oco) S(igilli)” mark. Stitched.

File number “Nom: 13.” by old hand on title. – Especially the main part in beautiful, large typography. – Widemarged.

Extraordinarily  rich  decree

on combat + cure of hydrophobia by cutting the mad-worm + 8-page instruction on curing bitten men.
Offer no. 13,081 / EUR  496. / Export price EUR  471. (c. US$ 764.) + shipping

(Mandate of Frederick August Duke of Saxony Regarding the Restriction of Dog-Ownership and the Precautions to arrange against the free running about of the dogs and for prevention of the danger to be afraid of rabid dogs. Along with the annexes “Causes of the Hydrophobia of the Dogs and the Symptoms of such Rabies” and “Instruction How one has to behave in Case of a Bite by Rabid Dogs and How one can take Precautions against the Sad After-Effects”.) Published Dresden April 2, 1796. Fol. (34.8 x 22 cm). With large initial vignette in woodcut and a second one. 16 ll. With the printed ducal signature along with the “L(oco) S(igilli)” mark. Stitched. Uncut.

File number “Nom. 23” by old hand on title. – Last four ll. with small worm-gallery in the wide white upper margin. Final leaf with two brownspots. – Especially the main part in beautiful, large typography. – Wide-margined.

with direct reference to the preceding statute of September 7, 1782, realizing

hygiene  as  protection  against  illness .

Offer no. 13,082 / EUR  496. / Export price EUR  471. (c. US$ 764.) + shipping

(Directions to the Inhabitants of the Towns and the Country regarding the restriction of dog-ownership and the prevention of the danger to be afraid of rabid dogs. Repeating the mandate of April 2, 1796, along with the accompanying annexes “Causes of the Hydrophobia of the Dogs and the Symptoms of such Rabies” and “Instruction How one has to behave in Case of a Bite of Rabid Dogs and How one can take Precaution against the Sad After-Effects.”) (Dresden) 1797. Sm.-4to (20.5 x 17 cm). 24 pp. Stitched.

File number “Nom: 24” by old hand on title. The latter browned, a little dirty and with a small inconspicuous worm-gallery quite minimally touching also the following leaf.

recapitulating the regulations of the mandate issued the previous year as actualized version of the statute of September 7, 1782 in partially changed order

in  sentences  as  short  as  pregnant .

Offer no. 13,083 / EUR  345. / Export price EUR  328. (c. US$ 532.) + shipping

Edict (by Frederick William, King of Prussia, Margrave of Brandenburg) Regarding the Becoming Rabid of the Dogs and therein abolishing the so-called cutting of the mad-worm under the tongue as “the success did not correspond with the result hoped for”. Published Berlin February 20, 1797. (Berlin,) Georg Decker, (1797). Folio (34.5 x 24.5 cm). Title, 3 unnumbered ll. on 2 double leaves. With the printed royal signature along with the “L(oco) S(igilli)” mark. Uncut.
Offer no. 12,238 / EUR  322. / Export price EUR  306. (c. US$ 496.) + shipping

Döbel, Heinrich Wilhelm. Neueröffnete Jäger=Practica Oder der wohlgeübte und Erfahrne Jäger, Darinnen Eine vollständige Anweisung zur gantzen Hohen und Niedern Jagd=Wissenschaft in Vier Theilen … (New Opened Practice of the Hunter Or the well practised and Versed Hunter, In that a complete Instruction to the whole Knowledge of the Noble and Small-Game Hunt in Four Parts … All described thoroughly and clearly of many years practise … Along with a preface of the Mr. Chancellor (Imperial) Freiherr von Wolf. 3^rd revised edition very enlarged especially in forest matters. 4 pts. in 1 vol. Leipsic, Joh. Sam. Heinsius, 1783. Sm. fol. With several partly figurative woodcut-vignettes and illustrations and

21  folded  engravings

(20 ca. 35 x 40, one 35 x 19 cm, all comfortably folded on full-size blue laid paper). 13 nn. ll. title, prefaces + contents, 148, 264, 192, 108 pp., 32 nn. ll. ind. Later light brown h. pigskin with stamped back-title + lines, pigskin corners with lines, dark brown marbled covers, and bluish-grey insides + fly leaves.

Schwerdt I, 146 c; Jeanson 1709 + Cat. 1987, 183 and Souhart 143 for each other editions. – The classic published in 1746 in three parts and with only 20 coppers for the first time, likewise at Heinsius, followed in 1754 by the 2^nd edition enlarged on four parts and then the third anew enlarged one here, again in folio with now 21 coppers. In smaller size (8vo and large 8vo. resp.) then a Vienna edition of 1785/86 and as 4^th edition the one Leipsic 1828 worked over “completely and little valuably” (Meyer’s Convers.-Lex., 4^th ed., vol. V [1889], p. 16) and accompanied by 9 representing plates only.

I

Of the characteristics of the proper and the winged game, the  hounds  und  their  training , care , and  voluntary  exercise  as of the setting up of several hunting-grounds and preserves.

II

Of the various kinds of hunting, the utensils belonging to each one and to make the correct use of them.

Herein  among  many  relevant  others

Of the par force hunt / What belongs to the arrangement of a perfect hunting equipage or par force hunt / Of the training of the young hounds / Of the feeding of the young hounds / Of the par force horses / The presearch for the par force hunt / Of the functioning of the young hounds / How the par force hunt hounds are set in work and breath before they can be used to the perfect hunting / The starting to catch the stag / How it further goes on with the hunt / How to give care to the hounds and to keep them by health / Recipes for various illnesses of the hounds / Of the celebration of the feast of St. Hubert / Of the still-hunt or shooting / How a deer-cry is made and used / Of the still-hunt for wild boars / To call the roe / To whistle for the curlew / Of the whistle for the snipe and others more / Of the whistle for the cuckoo / Of the hunt on winged game (chap. 136-217, pp. 171-264).

III

Of the nature of the woods and other knowledge belonging to the nobel hunt.

IV

Of diverse needed hunting requisites and nature of the woods. – Herein among others

Some annotations on the characteristics of the noble stag as overlooked in the first part / Of the false use of the leader / Of the most well-known names of the par force hounds / Of the fishery (pp. 64-108).

The  accurately  worked  coppers ,

one of them with the signature of Joh. Gottfried Krügner II (1714 Leipsic 1782), illustrating the technical details of the whole as then i. a.

How the instruments for the lay out of the alleys, wing setting, and hunting courses are to be made / Presentation of forming the alleys, especially to an octagonal star-alley and a hexagonal one resp. / Clothes, nets, toils / Of a material carriage / Prospect of an organized main hunt along with the course (very small hole in the foot of a participant below right) / Course to the stag hunt / Hunting screen / Course to a confirmed hunt on stag and boar resp. / A counter-hunt / A real round course / Ground plan to a course / A hunt in a broken course / A course with straight wings and a roundness + A further presentation of a course for the boar hunt / Traps / Turnpikes / Altimetry of the trees / To measure out the timber / Fast traps for several predacious animals + Requisite to catch larks .

“ (Döbel’s) ‘Opened Practice of the Hunter’ deals with many subjects of hunting knowledge so excellently, that they are worthy of notice still now.

The  work  of  the  leader  and  bloodhound ,

the  arrangement  of  the  surrounded  hunt  etc.

are  described  exemplarily . ”

(Meyers Konvers.-Lex., op. cit.).

VERY  FINE  COPY , nearly absolutely impeccable, only two acid-freely repaired marginal tiny tears and the little hole in the plate said above. Several clear marginal additions in pencil for Latin names of trees. – Cover insides + fly leaves (the latter three-leaved under use of old paper) renewed, stand-edges of the covers rubbed.
Offer no. 14,803 / EUR  1485. / Export price EUR  1411. (c. US$ 2287.) + shipping

173  Pages + 12  Copper  Plates  dedicated  to  the  Hounds

Daniel, W(illia)m B(arker). Rural Sports. 2 vols. With engraved and (1) ill. titles by Peter William Tomkin (c. 1763 – c. 1836) and

63  (1 double page)  copperplates

by John Scott (London about 1778 – after 1821) after Stephan Elmer (Farnham, Sussex, – 1795, 10), Sawry Gilpin (Carlisle 1733 – London 1807, 10), and others. (London,) Bunny & Gold, (1801-)02. Large 4°. 5 nn. ll., 388 pp.; 3 nn. ll., 520 pp., 2 nn. ll. Brown half leather with gilt back plate, blind stamping, broad leather edges, and marbled boards. Top edge brown, otherwise paled dotted edges.

BMC IIL, 328; Souhart 132; Schwerdt I, 133 f. (2^nd edition of 1805, now in 3 vols. + suppl.-vol. of 1813). – First edition. – On broad Whatman-paper of 1794 + 1801. A few plates trimmed inside the white platemark, only one title within the publisher’s adress. A few marginal tears repaired. The plates mostly in the white margins a little foxed, only a few + the titles seized more. A few quires evenly slightly browned, otherwise as a whole of great freshness.

The several chapters on

different game as fox, stag, hare, martin, birds (110 pp. with 19 plates), and others more. Furthermore describing origin, principles, and development of hunting laws as a whole as especially connected with fish, birds, and hounds. Finally hints on arms and ammunition. Indexes for each volume.

Of definitive thematic priority  fishing  +  angling , containing on 373 pp. and 18 plts. besides numerous descriptions of species with instructions for hauling + needed flies 22 pages especially about making flies and 98 pages with descriptions of the waters, arranged to counties of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Illustrated and engraved by the best of their time.

Offer no. 13,130 / EUR  956. / Export price EUR  908. (c. US$ 1472.) + shipping

Following  wood  engravings  of  the  19^th  century  as a technique frequently used in the 2^nd half of the century which came up about 1800 and – contrary to the woodcut done with the knife along the grain – was executed with the chisel crossways to the grain in a stock of hard cross-cut wood to achieve the picturesque tone that constitutes

the  charm  of  also  present  sheets

from c. 1870-1880. Predominantly with artist/engraver inscriptions in the stock these works are partly, as then mentioned, plate wood engravings printed with tone plate. – Also see Hanebutt-Benz, (Studies on German Wood Engraving in the 19^th Century), Frankfort/Main 1984.

Hounds, Playing. Wood engraving as before.
Offer no. 12,381 / EUR  76. (c. US$ 123.) + shipping

Pyrenees, Dogs from the. 2 parts: Above female with 5 whelps and the male dog tied up in the background, below 3 heads. Wood engraving. C. 1870. 27.5 x 18.4 cm.
Offer no. 11,215 / EUR  76. (c. US$ 123.) + shipping

Specht, Friedrich (Lauffen on the Neckar 1839 – Stuttgart 1909). St. Bernard Dogs. Two dogs in the snowed-up mountains, one scenting into a crevasse. In the back supposedly the hospiz of the Great St. Bernard. Toned wood engraving by Richard Henkel for A. Cloß, Stuttgart. (1875/77.) Inscribed: FSpecht / A Closs X I / R Henkel sc., otherwise as above. 27.5 x 20.4 cm.
Offer no. 9,766 / EUR  82. (c. US$ 133.) + shipping

Specht, August (Lauffen on the Neckar 1849 – Stuttgart 1923), after. Alpine Herdsman’s Dogs Fighting with a Wolf. The wolf is already seized at the throat, from the chalet the herdsman comes along with his gun. Toned wood engraving for Cloß as before, but without engraver inscription. 27.3 x 20.3 cm.
Offer no. 9,549 / EUR  84. (c. US$ 136.) + shipping

Gélibert, Gaston (Médouy/Hautes-Pyrénées 1850 – Châtillon-sous-Bagneux/Hauts-de-Seine 1931). Bracke. Head with collar to the left. Wood engraving by Jules Huyot (Toulouse 1841 – Paris after 1885). C. 1870. Inscribed: Gaston Gélibert, otherwise in German as above. 18.4 x 14.5 cm.

Pupil of his father, the animal painter Paul G., whose field he favored together with his brother Jules and continued including hunting. Showed at the Paris Salon since 1870. – Some feeble foxspots in the wide white margin below.
Offer no. 11,178 / EUR  46. (c. US$ 75.) + shipping

– – Small Bracke. Head to the left. Wood engraving as before.
Offer no. 11,179 / EUR  43. (c. US$ 70.) + shipping

– – Dachshund. Two resting dachshunds on a clearing. Wood engraving as before, but 15.5 x 16.8 cm.
Offer no. 11,192 / EUR  60. (c. US$ 97.) + shipping

– – Hound from Brittany. Head to the front right. Wood engraving as before. Inscribed: Huyot. / Gaston (sic!), otherwise in German as above. 15.3 x 14 cm.
Offer no. 11,227 / EUR  50. (c. US$ 81.) + shipping

Gélibert, Jules (Bagnères-de-Bigorre/Hautes-Pyrénées 1834 – Capbreton/Landes 1916). “Bull terrier”. Achieved by cross-breeding in the Manche, very small and strong race for cave hunting. Two of them before straw and large trough. Wood engraving by Jules Huyot as before. Inscribed: Huyot. / Jules Gélibert, otherwise as above. 14.5 x 21.4 cm.

Thieme-Becker XIII, 365: “(Gélibert) paints almost exclusively animal and hunting pictures … ”. – Pupil of his father as above. Showed at the Paris Salon since 1859, then in Brussels + Berlin, too.
Offer no. 11,213 / EUR  65. (c. US$ 105.) + shipping

– – Hound of St. Hubert (Chien de Saint Hubert). Half length portrait. Toned wood engraving by Huyot as before. 17 x 15 cm.
Offer no. 14,463 / EUR  66. (c. US$ 107.) + shipping

Well Trained. Hound bringing a hare to the hunter meanwhile fallen asleep under an oak. Wood engraving by Huyot as before after T. E. Lory. (1873.) Inscribed: T E Lory / Huyot, otherwise in German as above 14.2 x 21.2 cm.
Offer no. 11,180 / EUR  69. (c. US$ 112.) + shipping

The  Hunters’  and  the  Hounds’  Pleasure

Etching + engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1730 Augsburg 1780). Inscribed: XVI. and XVII. resp. / Ioh. El. Ridinger, inv. et del. / Mart. El. Ridinger, sculps. A. V. 31.8-32 x 21.4-21.6 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 359/360; Silesian Ridinger collection at Boerner XXXIX, 1875/76 ( “Extremely rare”, 1885! ); Reich auf Biehla Collection 103/04 ( “Extremely rare”, 1894! ). – Sheets XVI + XVII of the 46-sheet set “To the Special Events and Incidents at the Hunt” (“The rarest set of Ridinger’s sporting line engravings”, Schwerdt) etched exclusively by Martin Elias after predominantly fatherly designs and concluded posthumously in 1779.

shows two groups in hilly landscape, one of which – with a hound à la Bavarian Hiesel towering above all other of its kind – still plans while the other already moves downhill.

in preparation of the hare hunting.

The set itself “arranged almost throughout so that always two by two correspond with each other and form pendants, just as they have been sold in pairs, too” (Thienemann). Here then the rare sujets in

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

with  provenance  Radulf  Count  of  Castell-Rüdenhausen

(1922-2004). – On heavy laid paper with typographic watermark and sheet sizes of 51 x 33.8 (XVI; at top still the two original little hang-up holes, three most little tears in the extremely wide lower margin acid-freely backed) and 43.7 x 31.5 cm (XVII; untrimmed on the left side, weak little water-streak in the left corner of the upper margin) resp., the varyingly wide margins optically well proportioned round about.
Offer no. 14,956 / EUR  1176. / Export price EUR  1117. (c. US$ 1811.) + shipping

„ das ‚Haupt-Schwein‘ ist gut … angekommen und gefällt … falls sich weitere Funde … auftun, freue ich mich über Ihre Nachricht “

(Herr W. S., 29. August 2002)