Starting-Sheet to as well early as Rarest Set
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Departure for Hunting. Rich hunting party on horseback including a huntress, too, and numerous hounds. On the right in the middle distance six-in-hand hunting carriage. Etching partly with drypoint by Johann Daniel Hertz I (1693 Augsburg 1754) for Jeremias Wolff just there. (1723.) Inscribed (torso): Joh. Elias Ridinger. Sheet-size: 33 x 48.4 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz (vol. I, plate III as first state) 9; Weigel, Art Stock Catalog, part XIII (1843), 12586 (as discharge print probably identical with that at Faber-Castell/Hamminger, see below); Coppenrath, part II, 1449 (trimmed on the edge of the subject and “added with small margin”, “extremely rare”, 1889; probably identical with Helbing’s one); Helbing XXXIV (Works by J. E. & M. E. Ridinger, 1554 items; 1900), 8 (“trimmed to platemark”, obviously the Coppenrath copy above); Counts Faber-Castell (1958) 18 (as discharge print from the Hamminger collection [1894], probably identical with Weigel’s copy above).
Plate 1 of the third earliest hunting set
of the master
completely scarcely to be found
(Thienemann: “… which is “not in my possession , but I would like to possess it”, 1856 ! ) in the moreover
rare first state magnified once more for itself
and dedicated only in this to Lothar Franz von Schönborn (1655-1729), elector of Mayence and prince-bishop of Bamberg, here, however, as a result of trimming with loss of his dedication, too, see below.
( Even princes wish to divert themselves by hunting,
the forest is for the game a stable without security:
shows the same itself only a little,
so the hunters and their hounds are ready. )
About 1750 the central group of the party served Meißen porcelain painters as pattern for plates.
Complete copies beside the one mentioned by Thienemann, the one with Baron Gutmann (Schwarz), and after all two traded here provable here only at Schwerdt (III [1928], 134 as 3rd state with Hertel’s address being unrecognized following Thienemann and Schwarz and in such a way described erroneously as proofs before the Schönborn dedication, subsequently then at L’Art Ancien, Ridinger list 14 [1939], 2, now as “State apparently undescribed” and putting up for discussion Schwerdt’s “before” the dedication) and the one sold in 1958 by K & F (LXIV, 167) as likewise 3rd state and in such a manner possibly anew the Schwerdt copy. – The record at Wend, Ergänzungen zu den Œuvreverzeichnissen der Druckgrafik / Deutschsprachiges Schrifttum, Leipsic 1975, I, 1, p. 302, with reference to L’Art Ancien, see above.
Of the above ones Coppenrath + Helbing possessed beside sheet 1 yet sheet 4 as in respect of the same condition obviously identical with each other and Faber-Castell still 3 + 4, on similar reason probably identical with the copies with Reich auf Biehla (1894, nos. 8 f.; “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 sheets plus 470 doubles + 20 drawings) and there qualified as “very rare” . Baillie-Grohmann on the other hand possessed solely the sheets 2-4 in 1st and (sheet 3) 2nd state resp., later per item 3 in L’Art Ancien’s list above.
Absolute negative report then also in 1885 within the Silesian Ridinger collection at Boerner XXXIX (“of greatest richness … [many rarities]”) + in Rosenthal’s Ridinger list 126 of 1940 (444 items).
Thienemann stated the plates as lost and as not yet published by Ridinger himself the set moreover did not figure in the 1824 list of Engelbrecht’s new editions.
Silver-grey impression of the probably 1st state
as illustrated by Schwarz, but relating to trimming on the edge of the subject – only above almost throughout with fine platemark – only with the spared signature rest “Ioh. Elias Ridinger” directly on the left beneath the picture and without the said Schönborn dedication and the Virgil verse thus only quoted above. Some small tears and a thin upper corner backed acid-freely. – Large Fleur-de-lis watermark.
Offer no. 15,233 / EUR 1980. / export price EUR 1881. (c. US$ 2654.) + shipping
“ Received the Heron Hawking today, it is exceptionally nice. Thank you for packing so carefully … ”
(Mr. L. A. F., December 6, 2005)