Martin Elias Ridinger (1731 Augsburg 1780). In the Tÿrol at the Lake Inn (Lake Wild-See near Seefeld?) it happened as I as forest keeper there took a walk early in the morning that I encountered a so-called white-tailed eagle (Th.: cormorant) with its young ones of which in this moment a large bird of prey (Th.: white-tailed eagle) tried to take a young one, and really took away. The forest keeper with his dog on the right among trees and shrubs, the attack/defence over the water near the lakeside, at the distant shore a church. Etching with engraving after assumedly own design. Inscribed: XXXI. / M. E. Ridinger. sc: A. V., otherwise in German as before. 9¾ × 13⅛ in (24.6 × 33.3 cm).

Thienemann + Schwarz 374; Reich auf Biehla Collection 116 ( “Extremely rare”, 1894! ); Hamminger Collection 1620 (only within his set complete except for two, including “some sheets with caption only and mounted. Including very rare sheets”, 1895!); Helbing XXXIV, Arbeiten von J. E. und M. E. Ridinger, 890 ( „Very rare“, 1900!, marked with 50 Goldmark and thus a great margin to the gross of the other 42). – Missing as well in the 1885 Silesian Ridinger collection at Boerner XXXIX as 1889/90 the Coppenrath sale.

Sheet XXXI of the 46-sheet set To the Special Events and Incidents at the Hunt (“The rarest set of Ridinger’s sporting line engravings”, Schwerdt 1928) etched exclusively by Martin Elias after predominantly his father’s designs and concluded posthumously in 1779.

Wide-margined impression originating from the omnibus volume of the old estate of a nobleman on firm laid paper as Ridinger’s preferred quality

with the Roman number

(“If they are missing, so this indicates later impressions”, Th.). – Margins above & below 2.5-5.8 cm, laterally 6.6-6.7 cm wide. In the white left far margin utterly unessential partial faint little foxing spots in the margins. There also still both the two pinholes from the original stitching in numbers.

The set itself “arranged almost throughout so that always two by two harmonize with each other and form pendants, just as they have been sold in pairs, too” (Th.). Here thus with the attack of a white-tailed eagle on a wild (whooper?) swan in the Lake Ammergau in Bavaria.

Offer no. 15,720 | price on application