Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Holy Family. Dominant triple relationship of Mary with the sleeping child on her arm, whose right points at the Ecce Agnus Dei as banderole around the cross beam of the child St. John as his later Baptist kissing his right foot, looked at in thoughts by Joseph holding a book with both his hands. In the inscription plate below mussel-cartouche likewise left empty. Mezzotint. Inscribed: Ioh. El. Ridinger excud. A.V. Subject size 53 x 40.8 cm.

Comp. Schwarz 1484 with plate II, XXXIX; Counts Faber-Castell (1958) 166 without indication as variant to Schwarz.

Not  in  Thienemann (1856) , Stillfried (1876) , Weigel, Art Stock Catalog I-XXVIII (1838/57) , Coppenrath Collection (1889 f.) , Helbing XXXIV (Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger; 1900) , Rosenthal, Ridinger list 126 (1940).

Of rich chiaroscuro it obviously is the second state of Schwarz 1484 – “Similar, but not identical with Th. 1280” – with less nuance in the details. Here trimmed to platemark on three sides it has to be left undecided if the difference in height constituted by the pictureless filling area above of Mary + Joseph results from a shortening of the plate or individual trimming of the paper. – Typographic watermark.

Beyond proven rarity and moreover undescribed state of preprogrammed scarcity as according to expert Sandrart (1675) the technically conditioned extremely fast wearing off mezzotint plate permits 50-60 good impressions only.

Correspondingly already in 1856 Thienemann, pages VIII + 270 :

“ The  mezzotints  are  almost  not  available  in  the  trade  anymore

… all worked by and after Joh. El. Ridinger (are) that rare that they are to be found almost only in some public, grand print rooms. I have come across most of the described ones only in the famous print room at Dresden … ”

Not even there then the present one as not just, overlapping generations, remained unknown to Thienemann + Stillfried, rather in this second state, now documented here for the first time, even still further decades later to Schwarz.
Offer no. 14,961 / EUR  970. / Export price EUR  921. (c. US$ 1461.) + shipping

“ Yes please. I take that (further) copy.
I have now fetched the (last) parcel at the post office and I was very pleased. First of all: thank you for making so good parcel. I hate when I receive damaged copies because of bad envelopes. So once again: thank you very much for handling the items with such care! For me that is another word for seriousness and professionalism.
It was also a good copy and I liked it very much.
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(Mrs. G. H., June 19, 2006)