Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). (Monkeys or Animals related to them.) Suite of 10 plates. Etchings with engraving after copies at third-hand (i. a. after the London physician Sir Hans Sloane, 1660-1753) and drawings by himself. 31.6-32.2 x 21.1-21.7 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 541-550; Weigel 28 A/B; Silesian Ridinger collection at Boerner XXXIX, 1896 ( “Rare”, 1885 ! ); Reich auf Biehla 136; Schwerdt III, 141, f.; Ridinger Catalogue Darmstadt, 1999, III.14-III.16 with two ills.

Published without title with the “Designation to be  colored  and to follow Ridinger’s great work”,

for  the  1^st  edition  –  as  here  –  generally  only  black  impressions  stand .

Only later, so Thienemann continues, for the purpose of coloring the plates were “reduced, and included somewhat modified (also partly with respect to the text) with the colored plates”. This then certainly by the sons Martin Elias + Johann Jacob who concluded the “Colored Kingdom of the Animals” not completed by the father anymore about 1768. Nevertheless also of this 2^nd edition as separate, independent suite colored copies remained widely unknown and are not mentioned by Weigel either (28, A-E). Yet one and only one was sold here in 1972.

Present copy furnished with all characteristics of the first issue as described by Thienemann and Schwarz, but only partly corresponding in this connection with Weigel. Criteria for first impressions are for the latter the single-lined subtext in German-French as well as the missing “of the enclosing line at both sides and … the arched one at top. Originally these impressions seem to have been determined for the Original Animal Work.” The second impressions then were “furnished with the enclosing lines and modified subtexts as well as numbers”.

Analogous to Thienemann + Schwarz also here only plate 1 has a 3-lined subtext, plates 2-10 the single-lined one as a Weigel criterion for the first impressions. All plates with enclosing line + number as according to Weigel criteria of the second impressions. Since descriptions of other copies do not comment on this – only Schwerdt III, 141, f notes the numbering for his copy from the Earl of Fife collection – it therefore needs further comparing research in this case, too.

For the chronological sequence of the (colored) plates of the late years besides the variations already discussed above the present copy of the Monkeys also grants an interesting conclusion with respect to the paper. Aside from sheet 3 limited to just the lines as watermark all others bear, accompanied by known large coat-of-arms mark, the typographic WANGEN mark including “FAI” (known also “FIAT”) on preceding own line, with a lower “v” inside of the “A”. The paper itself in its weight varying from heavy to perceptibly lighter in the direction of the fine Dutch laid paper. Bearing in mind the remark Ridinger still himself made on the paper ( “because of the fine illumination done on Dutch paper as for this it is the most decent and best one” ) in the preface to the “Main Colors of the Horses” published 1770 posthumously, present Monkeys prove by the paper, too, as being the first in publication. For already here Ridinger visibly made every effort to get a paper as fine as possible as the WANGEN mill, however, obviously could produce up to a certain lightness only. So that for “Kingdom of Animals” and “Main Colors” he switched over to Dutch paper by C & I HONIG.

With gilt head edge suggesting the once belonging to an unmounted album, quality of impression and preservation are nearly best, with 43.5 x 29 cm the sheet size goes beyond that of the Earl of Fife with Schwerdt with just 41.5 x 28 cm. Thus 3.5-4 cm laterally, 3-5 above + 7-8 below. Only plate 1 with two longer backed margin tears, the upper one of which touching the white platemark, and slightly age-smudgy especially in the lower margin. Otherwise generally in the outmost lower margin and in the right lower corner slightly finger-stained. The heading of the 4^th plate “CEBVS” inclusive of, partly, lateral and top edge a little weak in print. Small brown spot in the branchwork of the 6^th plate.

The set – etched after supposedly Jakob Jele (southern Germany 2^nd h. of the 16^th century), Karl Wilhelm de Hamilton (Brussels 1668 – Augsburg 1754), Lazarus Röting (1549-1614), Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), London, as well as after own design – belongs to the rarest of the master’s. Through decades it was missing in the most comprehensive of current collections, which could add it only in recent years by the partial purchase here of the legendary Marjoribanks Folios of Baron von Gutmann. But also the only 7-sheet copy of the huge collection of counts Faber-Castell could not be completed until its dissolution in 1958. And already in the 1889 Coppenrath sale it was classified as “rare”. The “Barbate Long-tailed or Green Monkey” present there with the remainder of 67 (sic!) copies (nos. 1555/56), however! Of which already at Helbing in 1900 nothing more was to be found anymore! Not one single sheet figured in his 1554-lot Ridinger catalogue XXXIV of that year, and also the complete set in one single copy only. Both in general contrast to other suites and their plates.
Offer no. 28,132  /  price on request

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