Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Mary with the Child at the Ionic column. Half-length portrait. Looking up in rich robe supported by fine chiaroscuro with the child looking out of the picture in the right arm with the left one participating. Below ornamented cartouche in wide text margin with just the signature inscribed. Mezzotint by supposedly Johann Jacob Ridinger (1736 Augsburg 1784). Inscribed: Ioh. El. Ridinger excud. Aug. Vind. 64.6 x 48 cm.

Comp. Schwarz 1521; Counts Faber-Castell (1958) 170 without identification as variant to Schwarz; Rosenthal, Ridinger list 126 (1940), no. 441.

Not  in  Thienemann (1856) , Stillfried (1876) , Weigel, Art Stock Catalog I-XXVIII (1838/57) , Silesian Ridinger collection at Boerner XXXIX (1885) , Coppenrath Collection (1889 f.) , Reich auf Biehla (1894) , Helbing XXXIV (Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger; 1900) .

(Monika Heffels in the attendant text to the 1976/77 exposition Netherlandish Graphic of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg)

Variant  described  here  for  the  first  time

to the with just 62.4 x 44.3 cm smaller Schwarz copy which in addition bears the engraver’s signature of Johann Jacob in the lower margin left. That of Johann Elias, in conformity placed right outside, deviating in the abbreviation of the first Christian name limited to the “I.” with Schwarz. If and in case which of these two versions corresponds with the Rosenthal copy has to be left undecided for lack of specifications there beyond an “imp. fol.”.

With figurative watermark supposedly accompanied by letter (p?), conditionally following Heawood 3299 as standing for middle of the 18^th century with fixed dates “After 1746, 1776, 1755, 1756”, here without the full word mark, however, and the box-shaped arrangement of grapes in two rows only compared with four there. – With margin running about of a scant 1 up to 1.5 cm wide. – Mounted on cloth for partial abrasions, perceptible with the unarmed eye here and there only and barely impairing the optical general impression, as not yet noted for the 1958 sale, causing slight pleats in the mostly unessential lower subject. – At the back presumably by hand of count Radulf in pencil

“ For  the  rarest  Ridinger  sheets ”.

Beyond proven rarity and moreover undescribed variant 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. 14,962 / EUR  970. / export price EUR  921. (c. US$ 1282.) + shipping

„ Best her Niemeyer, De prenten zijn vanmiddag in goede staat gearriveerd. Alleen al het uitpakken is een genot! Ze zien er prachtig uit (vooral The Idel ’prentice is een juweel) … Wat dat betreft, zijn eigenlijk alle prenten die u mij hebt toegezonde, van uitstekende kwaliteit … “

(de heer P. E., 1. Februar 2008)