Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Bear in the Lair sucking on his Paws. Bruno calculates roughly his chances in practicing the Schengen Treaty as “Great European” (Austria’s chancellor Schüssel in well-deserved obituary). Etching + engraving. (1738.) Inscribed: J. E. R. / N. 41., title in German as above. 18.3 x 14.7 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 431. – Sheet 41 from “Design of Several Animals” ( “These plates are much wanted”, Thienemann 1856, Bruno by the way was much wanted for weeks, too). – Wide-margined impression of the 1^st edition.
Offer no. 7,299 / EUR  202. (c. US$ 326.) + shipping

 

– – – Posture of a Bear just when he starts to march down a Mountain. Bruno sets out for his ramblings. Etching as before. Inscribed: J. E. R. fec. / N. 40. – Thienemann + Schwarz 430; Catalogue Darmstadt III.5 with ills. – Sheet 40 of the set.

Having weak eyes “(He has) taken the head between the paws and is about to tumble himself down a height. ”
Offer no. 7,298 / EUR  217. (c. US$ 350.) + shipping

 

– – – The Bear looking for Honey. Bruno’s search for the true + fine. As before. Inscribed: J. E. Ridinger inv. fec. et exc. Aug. Vind. / N. 39. – Thienemann + Schwarz 429. – Sheet 39 of the set.

“ 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

 

– – – The Bear frightened. Bruno before his den confronted with a snake dating its tongue. EVE! Isn’t that the name of the saucy dairymaid up there at the hut-keeper? As before.

Thienemann + Schwarz 432. – Sheet 42.
Offer no. 7,300 / EUR  217. (c. US$ 350.) + shipping

 

– – – A Bear consuming his Prey. Bruno under a strong trunk in the forest over a simple roe. If that isn’t allowed anymore! As before.

Thienemann + Schwarz 434. – Sheet 44.
Offer no. 7,302 / EUR  228. (c. US$ 368.) + shipping

 

– – – An American Bison as he fights off the attacking Bears.

Look, Bruno, even such an original beast from the other side of the pond the good fellows allow themselves for their renaturalization program. But just one against three of my own kind, of which two already are quite. Bruno, life is not harmless in case you come across the right one. You better stay on mountain tops. Here then at least a light grotto with fine vista at splendid width, interrupted by two rocky formations. Etching and engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1730 Augsburg 1780). Inscribed: XVIII. / Ioh. El. Ridinger, inv. et del. / M. El. Ridinger, sc. A. V., otherwise in German as above. 25.4 x 35.5 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 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).

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

 

Flor  Fina  Extra or That way Mister Schnappauf (literally: SnapUp; the Bavarian secretary for environmental affairs) would like to see me. But not with me, Bruno! Dancing bear between two flutists. Gouache on carton. Ca. 1920. Inscribed as before. 127 x 178 mm.

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

 

Bear’s Ditch in Berne. This one you might visit as well. But just have a look from the outside, Bruno. Downright four fools “communicating” with gapers. Wood engraving after Friedrich Specht (Lauffen on the Neckar 1839 – Stuttgart 1909). 16.7 x 12.4 cm.

Verso: 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. – Continued local text on both sides.
Offer no. 9,691 / EUR  50. (c. US$ 81.) + shipping

 

Bruno  as  Anti-Thesis  to  the  “Line  of  Beauty”

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). (The Bruiser, C. Churchill … in the Character of a Russian Hercules.)

whose “Epistle to Hogarth” provoked the master in the character of a strong bear whose only food seems to be stout, a tankard of which he hugs, tasting the fresh foam. The epistle done by Hogarth’s favourite dog Trump in its way, however. Engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: 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 of 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 the antagonist 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 a name for himself 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.

Excellent print of fine chiaroscuro 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. Cook’s popular later, smaller repetition. Inscribed: C. Churchill. / Hogarth pinxt. / T. Cook sculpt. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, Nov. 1^st. 1807. Image size 17.5 x 14 cm. – Trimmed inside the wide white margins. Its edges slightly foxing.
Offer no. 8,898 / EUR  138. (c. US$ 223.) + shipping

 

There  the  Finn  Hounds  shall  sweat

Oudry, Jean-Baptiste (Paris 1686 – Beauvais 1755) – Period – Bear-Baiting. Bruno in yet fresh struggle 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 mounted on laid paper by old and inscribed by unknown hand as Jean Baptist Oudry. – Of the three longitudinal folds already including 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 and here supported by the paper. The sinous position of the bear reminding as spontanously of prints and paintings of Ridinger’s, however, less though the features of especially the hounds. Not least a sheet though whose still pending identification is good for any surprise.
Offer no. 13,021  /  price on request

 

What Bruno hears from the North anyway – Bear Hunt in Lapland. One of the two killed relatives of Bruno’s just loaded by one of the three hunters – this additionally with a fox over the back – on a reindeer. In the middle distance a reindeer sledge, behind it further hunters.

Offer no. 12,213 / EUR  86. (c. US$ 139.) + shipping

 

(Polar Bear Hunting.) For white-washed Brunos in 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

 

Howitt, Samuel (1765 – Somers Town 1822). Seamen killing a Polar Bear. Even if one of the two hounds didn’t survive the embrace Bruno’s cousin had no chance against the seamen armed with boat-hooks and guns. Aquatint together with M. Dubourg (before 1786 – after 1838)

Inscribed: Howitt Del. / Published & Sold Jan^y. 1^st. 1813, by Edw^d. Orme, Bond Street, London. / Howitt & Dubourg Sculp^t., otherwise as before. 18.1 x 23.4 cm.

Tooley 224, 79. – From the 1^st edition of FOREIGN FIELD SPORTS completed in 1814 , 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 … “.
Offer no. 11,770 / EUR  117. (c. US$ 189.) + shipping

 

before he should have been brought into the nestling nest of the bear commissioner. Aquatint in its  original  coloring as before. – Two sides of the wide white margin somewhat foxed. One spot also in the clean top margin.
Offer no. 11,761 / EUR  101. (c. US$ 163.) + shipping

 

– – A Trap to Shoot the Bear.…

Stretched up you will reach in strained expectation for the honey-pot and the honey running out and lick – and then it makes bang-bang! Fine that the allied bear commissioners of these days don’t have the nerve for this anymore. Aquatint in the  original  coloring  as before.
Offer no. 11,776 / EUR  107. (c. US$ 173.) + shipping

 

Indeed  this  was  quite  more  risky  in  the  age  of  Ridinger .  For

He  not  just  made  a  Pictorial  Event  of  it …

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Spring-Gun on a Bear. Bruno Bear, stretched up in strained expectation and reaching for the honey-pot swarmed round by numerous bees, from which the golden juice flows liberally, in the moment of the shots coming off from two sides. The bait joined by two ropes is fixed to the cross-beam of a trestle resting on strong palisades. Washed brush drawing and pen and brown ink over somewhat graphite. 213 x 346 mm.

Fully executed drawing of origin from the small group of the “Pictorials”  before  its side-inverted version for the transfer on the plate, as preparatory for print 8 – Th. 76 – of the 1750 set of the etchings (in mixed technique with engraving) of the “Ways to capture the Wild Animals”. And by this

For Thienemann (1856, page 274, c) knew from this set but 3 other preparatory drawings in the possession of Weigel, among them a larger-sized variant to the present one, which compared with the print is “quite different in the execution” though. Provable besides the one in question and a still available further one (A Lynx by the Turnpike) seven others, of which four could be handed over here already in pairs into an internationally magnificent private and important German Ridinger collection resp.

This first-rate 9-sheet block of the Ways to Capture, 7 or 8 of which in the direction of the print, origins from the “Group of the Pictorial” of that high-carat Westphalian collection by whose dissolution lasting for more than a decade beside i. a. sketches and proofs quite a number of of quite extraordinary drawn uniquenesses found back onto the market, too, whose extraordinary charm is determined by their wash. The technique the master knew to win the whole plenty of painterly light effects and contrasting. Present one of the

bees  –  bear  –  drama

then also as executed work in connection with a print also within the Ridinger œuvre of greatest rarity.

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.
Offer no. 14,973  /  price on request

 

the executed etching (with engraving), inscribed

Joh. Elias Ridinger del. fec. et excud. Aug. Vind.

together with  6 lines  explanation. 25.2 x 36.6 cm.
Offer no. 14,972 / in stock – not catalogued / request description & offer

 

Thoman(n) von Hagelstein, Tobias Heinrich (1700 Augsburg 1764). Leo’s assault on a Fallow-deer hunted by a Bruno. Sliding down a rock the lion has grasped the deer while Bruno appears surprisingly as usual from behind a fallen tree. Lower right a fox before a hole as likewise surprised as not unwilling to take his part of the prey of the great game. Specially 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:

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

 

Snyders, Frans (1579 Antwerp 1657). (The Bear-Baiting.) A mighty Bruno resisting Finland’s cringing bear’s gloria. 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

 

Fyt, Jan (1611 Antwerpen 1661). (The Bear Baiting.) Bruno, though hard-pressed by many Finland hounds in the opening of a den, yet not nearly beaten and, unless Bavarian’s Schnappauf (“SnapUp”) makes an appearance, supposedly once again with all odds in his favor to leave the battlefield victoriously. On the right vista over a wide Schengen 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. – Comp. Nagler XI, Piloty, 312 ff. + IV, Fyt, 539 f. – Not in Schwerdt. – On mounted China. – Quite feeble little fox-spots on the right of the lower margin, a margin tear repaired acid-freely, otherwise impeccable. – Published within the set (“Paintings of the Munich Gallery”) edited by Piloty since 1834 + 1837 together with Loehle resp. “This project soon stirred general interest as the participants … developed a hitherto not achieved technical perfection” and

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).

Offer no. 28,066 / EUR  302. / Export price EUR  287. (c. US$ 463.) + shipping

 

Hunting with Hounds from 1723 as his second earliest hunting set, etched – he himself worked in copper only from about 1728 on – by Johann Daniel Hertz for Jeremias Wolff, both in Augsburg. 36.5-37.2 x 49-49.4 cm (2 ll.) and subject size, so for the Bear Baiting, too, 33.1-34.5 x 48.6-48.8 cm resp.

Thienemann 9-12 as not being in his possession; Schwarz 9-12 (1^st state, supplemented by 11a as 2^nd state; Schwerdt III, 134 (3^rd state with the Hertel address or mixed copy.). – As “exceedingly rare” incomplete in other prominent collections, among these even Weigel who in 1846 owned plate 1 as etched proof only. – 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; Lipperh. Tf 24; Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon V, 587, mixing l’Histoire de l’Equitation + the present into one, bibliographically morevoer incorrect, work. – On large strong paper with publishers’ dry-stamp. – Isolated small tears in the wide white margins restored acid-freely. 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. Produced especially hunting, genre, and military scenes in the manner of the Vernets and competed in this respect with Victor Adam, too“ (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 – 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

 

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). White (Greenlandish Polar Bears.) Mezzotint printed in brown by Johann Elias Haid (1739 Augsburg 1809). Inscribed: Joh. Elias Ridinger pinxt. / Joh. Elias Haid fecit. / Groenlaendische See=Baeren. 28 x 33.2 cm.

Th.-Stillfried (1876) + Schwarz (1910) 1386, otherwise over more than one hundred years

missing  in  the  important  Ridinger  collections

as in the significant properties of dealers. Starting with Thienemann himself (1856) and Weigel (1838/57) to Coppenrath (1889/90), Helbing (1900; besides 10 drawings 1030 prints plus states + doubles!), Schwerdt (1828/37), Rosenthal (1940), Counts Faber-Castell (1958; 106 drawings, 1239 prints!). Here over the decades nevertheless mediated into Bavarian + Rhenish private collections as two important contemporary ones and now available once more.

In 1890 the drawing hereto figured as lot 34 with the remark “for the undescribed (sic!) and rare mezzotint by the master” within the “Fine collection of drawings and engravings by Joh. El. Ridinger from the possession of a known collector” at Wawra in Vienna.

If the impulse emanates from Johann Melchior Roos’ – for works after his father Johann Heinrich stands Th. 793-806 – painting of the White Bear in Schwerin of 1729 with also two animals cannot be decided for the time being. See their color illustration in the exhibition catalogue “(The Painter Family Roos in Germany)”, without date, but before 1998, p. 21, commented by Kristina Hegner pp. 20 f. with

“ The depiction of the white bear belongs in its facet-like concentration on one to two animals and thanks to their rare colour to one series with the exotic animals Roos portrayed (after princely menageries) … Besides the aspect of the painted natural-history specimens increasingly that of the animal portrait comes into the foreground and finds its effective expression in this painting.

In opposite to this stands the comprehensive depiction of ‘White Bears in a Rocky Ravine’ of already 1718 (illustrations in Roos Catalogue Kaiserslautern, 1985, p. 38, + Jedding, Joh. Hch. Roos – Werke einer Pfälzer Tiermalerfamilie in den Galerien Europas, 1998, no. 367, as pendant to the Brown Bears, ills. 366; also see the White Bear in Johann Melchior’s Kingdom of the Animals of 1728 in Brunswick, ills. Jedding 374). ”

And Hermann Jedding (Der Tiermaler Joh. Hch. Roos, Straßburg/Kehl 1955 as vol. 311 of Studien zur dt. Kunstgeschichte, pp. 188 f.) saying in advance:

“ (Johann Melchior) continues the tradition of Andreas Ruthardt in direct line and  leads  over  to  the  game  hunts  of  Elias  Ridinger . ”

Within the sets the White Greenlandish Bear figures as leaf 3 of the set of bears, Thienemann 527, and, reduced in size + foxy-red, within the Coloured Kingdom of Animals as Zeydelbär, Th. 1081, and as White Spitsbergen Greenlandish Bear per 1082 resp. See on this the pen-and-ink drawings 755 (Zeydelbär), 757 (White Greenlandish Bear) + 758 (White Spitsbergen Greenlandish Bear) from 1754 in the Ridinger appendix of Weigel’s catalogue of drawings left behind of 1869. In connection with these also the Greenlandish Polar Bears of the mezzotint here may have been created.

Absolutely  perfect  impression  of  outmost  beauty

on wide-margined (2.5-3 cm, here quite light touch of foxing spots) strong laid paper watermarked AMP.

Thematically there are two bears of which the one in front, nose over the ground, strolls to a cavern while the other roars up to the polar fox lurking right above of the hole. A „Very well executed picture“ Count Stillfried judged when he made known the plate for the first time.

One of those “passing(s) over of

rarer  compositions

by the engraving” which make “(Haid’s) work (as mezzotint engraver; since 1788 director of the Augsburg Academy, journeys to Venice and the Netherlands, “got orders from northern Germany up to Suisse”) valuable to us” (Thieme-Becker XV, 482 f.). Here in the deep brown characteristic of only the early plates which is later replaced by a pale grey. And thus beyond its rarity together

a  general  top  item  of  the  18^th  century  graphics .

Angebots-Nr. 14.395 / EUR  956. / Export price EUR  908. (c. US$ 1466.) + shipping