Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Presentation of both Roman as Grecian War Folks from my Academic Drawings for the Use chosen and designed according to the Age. Plates 1-12 + 17 (of 18) in etching + engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1730 Augsburg 1780). Not before 1759. Inscribed: 1. to 12. + 17. / Mart. El. Ridinger Filius æri incid. (pl. 1), otherwise M. E. Ridinger sc. and, pl. 17, J. El. Ridinger inv. del. et excud. Aug. Vind. / J. Gottfrid Seuter sc. A.V. resp., otherwise in German as above, followed by “, by Johan(n) Elias Ridinger Painter and Engraver also Director of the Academy.“ C. 17-18.8 x 10.5-12.5 cm as once plate, then sheet size, see below, and (pl. 17) 19.6 x 13.2 cm resp.

Thienemann + Schwarz (I, plate XXVIII) 860-871 + 876 (of 860-877); Silesian Ridinger Collection at Boerner XXXIX, 1952 (only 8 sheet, moreover “Trimmed on platemark. Very rare”, 1885); Reich auf Biehla Collection 190-191 (17 sheet, “Very rare”, 1894); Helbing XXXIV (Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger; 1900), 1481 (only Th. 873 as pl. 14, correspondingly qualified “Rare.”); Rosenthal, Ridinger list 126 (1940), 356 (only Th. 871 as pl. 12). – 11 pen-and-ink drawings to this, two of which dated with 1753 and 1756 resp., figured as lot 122 on the 1890 Wawra sale “of a fine collection of drawings and engravings by Joh. El. Ridinger from the possession of a known collector”.

Neither as a whole nor in single sheets in Weigel, Art Stock Catalog, pts. I-XXVIII (1838/57) + Coppenrath Collection (1889 f.). – A partly trimmed and mounted torso of 8 sheets here proven in the trade of 1956. Present then Castell’s with 13 sheets the clearly more sumptuous one

in a mixed copy as most telling proof of the difficulty of even a sheet-by-sheet bringing together, as then was denied even just to Reich auf Biehla (1894; “Of all [R. collections on the market] since long time there is none standing comparison even approximately with the present one in respect of completeness and quality … especially the rarities and undescribed sheets present in great number”; 1266 sheet plus 470 doubles + 20 drawings). Whereby the partly original arrangement of each two sheets side by side with parting line on one plate conditioned the loss of one lateral platemark each with normally enough white platemark remaining when – as here – scattered. Assuming this just as evenly fine quality of impression on buff laid paper the following preservation results:

Sheets 1, 2 (three small corner defects in the white platemark done), 5 (done corner defect upper left), 6 (done small corner defect upper right impairing the number), 9 + 10 (tear reaching just under 2 cm into the lower image hatching done just as a small tear out in the upper margin concerning the number, on the right, however, deviatingly additionally with paper margin 1 cm wide) trimmed on and within the platemark resp. with said white papermargin nevertheless 5-10 mm wide. Plates 3 (slight brown spot in the upper margin still touching the platemark), 4, 7 + 8 on three sides with paper margins 1.8-2.8 cm wide, one lateral margin each as before. Plates 11 + 12 trimmed to the subject edge on three sides with loss of the numbering, below, however, with 5-8 mm white platemark preserving the signature, but without its closing edge. Sheet 17 finally reconciling with everything: full platemark on all sides and paper margin 4 to 5.5 (below) cm wide all around!

Published not before 1759 as the year of the appointment to the office of a director of the Augsburg Academy, the set was obviously created peu à peu during the 50s. Nevertheless the richly staged warrior of sheet 17

has his predecessor in the not engraved drawing of 1723 “Alexander the Great at the Hyphasis in Punjab in Autumn 326 BC – The Zenith of an Empire, a Turning Point of History” where he holds back the mutineers pressing forward against the king. See their confrontation in publications of the ridinger gallery niemeyer XV, page 14.
Offer no. 14,879 / EUR  1300. / Export price EUR  1235. (c. US$ 1954.) + shipping

„ Herzlichen Dank für die sorgfältig verpackten Bände … “

(Herr H. M., 26. Mai 2007)

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