“Report of the Dog Handler to the ‘Maître D’Équipage’”
as
Opening Sheet to as well Early as Rarest Set
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Departure for Hunting. In front on the rendezvous spot rich party of mounted hunters along with a huntress as well as the pack with its handlers, following the six-in-hand hunting carriage in the background. Front center, however, first
“ The dog handler with hound on the leash and shouldered gun … the right hand (raised) in salutation to the tricorne and reporting to the Lord of the Hunt mounted on a white horse on
the deer traces confirmed in the morning ”
(Ulrich Pietsch). Right of this further piqueur. 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, presumably identical with that at Faber-Castell/Hamminger, see below); Coppenrath, part II, 1449 (trimmed to the edge of the subject and with “with small margin added”, “extremely rare”, 1889; supposedly identical with Helbing’s); Helbing XXXIV (Works by J. E. & M. E. Ridinger, 1554 items; 1900), 8 (“trimmed to platemark”, obviously the above Coppenrath copy); Counts Faber-Castell (1958) 18 (as discharge print from the Hamminger collection [1894], presumably identical with Weigel’s copy above).
Plate 1 of the master’s complete hardly traceable
third earliest hunting set
(Thienemann: “… which I do not possess myself , but would like to possess”, 1856 !) in the moreover
once more magnified rare first state
and dedicated in this only to Lothar Franz von Schönborn (1655-1729), elector of Mayence and prince-bishop of Bamberg, here, however, as a result of trimming under 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. )
The report scenery was used about 1735 by Johann George Heintze as part décor for the rear view of Johann Joachim Kaendler’s Meissen Vase with Lid and Woman’s Head Handles in Dresden (inv. no. P.E. 3508), with the second piqueur along with two hounds placed left of the white horse, “silhouetted before the white background … on a painted gold pedestal with central leaf mask and foliage tendrils”. For the cartouche of the front view the Boar Hunt (Th. 12) of the set was used, while the Stag Hunt Th. 10 graces the pendant vase P.E. 7276. See Pietsch (ed.), Porcelain Parforce, Munich 2005, nos. 59 f. along with three (color) illustrations each of the porcelains and the three Ridingers.
Complete copies of the set beside the one known to Thienemann, the one of Baron Gutmann (Schwarz), and after all two traded here provable here only with Schwerdt (III [1928], 134 as in succession of Thienemann and Schwarz not recognized 3rd state with Hertel’s address 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 not described” 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 reference in Wend, Ergänzungen zu den Œuvreverzeichnissen der Druckgrafik / Deutschsprachiges Schrifttum, Leipsic 1975, I, 1, p. 302, referring to L’Art Ancien, see above.
Of the above Coppenrath & Helbing possessed beside sheet 1 still sheet 4 as in respect of the same condition obviously identical with each other, and Faber-Castell still 3 & 4, for similar reason supposedly identical with the copies 8 f. 1894 at Reich auf Biehla (“Of all [R. collections traded] for a 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 large numbers” [1266 sheet 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 lot 3 in L’Art Ancien’s list above.
Absolute negative report then also 1885 within the Silesian Ridinger collection at Boerner XXXIX (“of greatest abundance … [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 likely 1st state
as illustrated by Schwarz, yet with regard to trimming to 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 thusly only quoted above. Some small tears as well as a thin upper corner backed acid-freely. – Watermark Large Fleur-de-lis.
Offer no. 15,233 / EUR 1980. / export price EUR 1881. (c. US$ 2559.) + shipping
„ Beste heer Niemeyer, Hartelijk dank voor de snelle terugboeking (concerning a bill paid for already one year ago). Zoiets schept altijd vertrouwen! Beste groeten “
(Mijnheer P. E., 3. Februar 2009)