Even as Animal of the Year 2003
one better not meets him in public European forests
Because Wolf Remains Wolf
Clandestine & shy ,
but also persistent , aggressive — and bloodthirsty
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Wolves of 3-4 Years and full-grown ones have 8-9 Whelps and live up to 20 Years. Five howling wolves amidst an especially fine rocky scenery. Etching and engraving. (1736.) Inscribed: 21. / Cum Priv. Sac. Cæs. Majest. / I. El. Ridinger invent. delin. Sculps. et excud. Aug. Vind., otherwise as above in German, French, Latin, & below. 34.5 x 42 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 216. – Sheet 21 of the “Study of the Wild Animals along with the Excellent Poetry of the Highly Famous Mr. Barthold Heinrich Brockes” as rich subtext in German. – Margins on three sides 2.7-3.2, on the right 5.5 cm wide. – Of shining-marvelous quality and therefore rarity.
Offer no. 15,589 / EUR 690. / export price EUR 656. (c. US$ 893.) + shipping
– The same as not used postcard in rotogravure after Ridinger for Felsing, Berlin. C. 1900-20.
Offer no. 28,466 / EUR 29. (c. US$ 39.) + shipping
A Winter for Wolves
Wintter, Joseph Georg (1751 Munich 1789). The Stag of Odd 20 Points attacked by Wolves. In mountainous winter landscape with fence and a farm set back one of the two wolves grasped the stag by the throat while the half covered other one operates from the back. Etching. Sheet size 11.8 x 15.9 cm.
Niemeyer 127. – Not related to one of the sets if not belonging to Niem. 21-24, stags + boars attacked by hounds. – Also not entered into the 44-sheet Augsburg omnibus edition on buff paper Schwerdt III, 190, a ( “Rare”, 1928 ) of 1821 the earliest. The wonderful quality of its impressions discloses the small editions and caused Schwerdt, not knowing the chronological factor, to assume proofs before the letter in many cases. But already on occasion of the here not otherwise proven 137-sheet edition Weigel 21336 stated in 1857: “Most sheets very rare”.
Wintter’s “etchings are fine and stand in their execution between those by Hollar and Riedinger. In 1784 W. became electoral Court and Hunting Engraver” (Nagler in vol. III, no. 68, of his Dictionary of Monogramists of 1863 and on his part additionally referring to the rarity of these fine plates). – Impression of rich contrast on firm laid paper. – Below trimmed to platemark, otherwise hard by image mark.
Offer no. 15,665 / EUR 685. / export price EUR 651. (c. US$ 887.) + shipping
Wolves in Mist. By moon just coming through two of them before a farm only visible ghostly. Wood engraving by Jules Huyot (Toulouse 1841 – Paris after 1882) after Ernest Bellecroix (active 1863-1877? in France). Ca. 1870. Inscribed: Er. Bellecroix / Huyot., otherwise in German as above. 14.8 x 21.8 cm. – Impression of 1873. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 11,221 / EUR 65. (c. US$ 89.) + shipping
Tempesta, Antonio (Florence 1555 – Rome 1630). Hunting the Wolf. In front left with the gun with depiction of the use of the ramrod, too, besides an already killed one. In the centre two follow the carrion of a sheep dragged by a horseman, observed by a huntsman sitting in a tree. Set back another one catched in the trap shall be slain, alternatively killed with the pike. Etching by Egbert Jansz (? late 16th century). 10.5 x 14 cm.
From the collection EK (not in Lugt) with its round stamp on the back, almost identical with the mark CK (L. 583) of the Carl König Collection, Vienna, known for paintings, drawings, and objects d’art. – No. 12 of the 18-sheet collection with repeated numbers by a contemporary, presumably Netherlandish copyist available here with provenance EK on uniformly fine, wide-margined laid paper, partly with watermark Amsterdam coat of arms flanked on one side by lion. Below overwhelmingly with wide white platemark with just the number at the right, what points to
early impressions before the letter .
The more so as in the few cases of only narrow margin the number appears directly in the image itself.
Highly instructive and also picturesque sheet
worked after one of the numerous Tempesta sets, e.g. the equal-sized Primo libro di Caccie varie (“This set was nicely copied, too”, Nagler), the collector’s reference to the first/second of the totally four Christoffel van Sichems (c. 1546-1624 and c. 1581 – before 1658 resp.) under providential inclusion of the contemporary Karel, too, seems not plausible based on the knowledge of their work here. More interesting in this regard should be Egbert Jansz, little known in his circumstances, of whom de Brys in Frankfort/Main published a collection “Icones Venantum Species Varias … per Antonium Tempestinum” in 1598 which Schwerdt I, 266 lists with 11 sheets, Thieme-Becker with 12 and Wurzbach with only 6 sheets. Not impossible that there are even more. These with 12 x 17 cm somewhat larger, however, and without numbering. Otherwise Schwerdt: Egbert Jansz was perhaps the best of those engravers who reproduced these and similar hunting scenes by Tempesta.
Offer no. 28,558 / EUR 135. (c. US$ 184.) + shipping
– – – The same , here next to a flock of sheep before a building by use of sword and pikes, the pursuit by horse, and the driving into nets. In the large group in front the attacked wolf charges the horse. Quite in the back a village with steeple. Etching as before. 10.8 x 14 cm. – Sheet 9. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 28,559 / EUR 125. (c. US$ 170.) + shipping
– – Wolf Pack among the Cattle, Goats, and Sheep of an Alp next to a property in front of which two shepherds with dog do not take any note of all that. Etching as before. 9.3 x 14.7 cm. – Sheet 10. – With watermark Amsterdam Coat of Arms with Lion. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 28,560 / EUR 99. (c. US$ 135.) + shipping
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Wolf in the Iron Trap. The iron mounted on a chain strangling the neck. Etching + engraving. (1750.) Inscribed: Joh. El. Ridinger inv. del. sculps. et excud. Aug. Vind., otherwise in German as before. 24.9 x 36.4 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 85; Schwerdt III, 135, 17 (“A rare set, of importance to those who are interested in the various methods of trapping wild animals”). – Sheet 17 of the 30-sheet set “Ways to capture the Wild Animals”, regarded by Halle in Munich in 1928 as the “Rarest of all hunting sets by Ridinger” (LXVIII/323). – Instructive 6-line subtext. – Rich in contrast. – Repairs in the left margin and below left partly touching also still the white platemark.
Offer no. 28,010 / EUR 445. / export price EUR 423. (c. US$ 576.) + shipping
Isengrim. In front of wintry wood looking at the beholder. Wood engraving by Jules Huyot (Toulouse 1841 – after 1882) after Jules Gélibert (Bagnères-de-Bigorre/Hautes-Pyrénées 1834 – Capbreton/Landes 1916). Ca. 1870. Inscribed: Jhuyot. / Jules Gélibert, otherwise in German as above. 14.8 x 21.8 cm.
Offer no. 11,220 / EUR 65. (c. US$ 89.) + shipping
Mountain Dogs Fighting with a Wolf. The wolf is already seized by the throat, from the chalet the herdsman comes along with his gun. Toned wood engraving after Friedrich Specht (Lauffen on the Neckar 1849 – Stuttgart 1909) for Adolf Closs, Stgt. (1875/76.) Inscribed: FSpecht (ligated), otherwise typographically in German as above. 27.3 x 20.3 cm. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 9,549 / EUR 84. (c. US$ 114.) + shipping
The “ Painterly ” Wolf Pit
Unique Drawing from the Early Days
of highest Quality
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). To catch the Wolf in the Pit with the Sheep. Against the scenery of a mountainous landscape with stock of trees the wolf trap with the wheel-topped pole erected in its midst on which a lamb lies whose bleating has baited four wolves, the first of which already falls into the pit. Pen and brown ink with grey wash. C. 1729. Inscribed in graphite on the back: Der Wolf in der Grube zu fangen mit dem Schafe. 292-295 x 422-423 mm.
On light laid paper with margins up to 17 mm running around. – Pinhead-small little hole, smoothed folds athwart and along resp., and generally somewhat time-marked, yet practically not impairing the image effect characterized by an unchanged freshness of colors. Except for one the former mounting board’s fox spots had only a quite faint effect perceptible on the back only.
Painterly absolutely perfectly executed splendid work
as the original drawing before its redrawing in reverse for the transfer into the plate for the equally named etching Th. 41 as the large version of the two wolf pit sheets of the set Princes’ Hunting Pleasure published since 1729 and in such perfect execution in relation to an engraving
belonging to the greatest rarities in Ridinger’s work today .
See the complete description.
Offer no. 15,450 / price on application
The Wolf Hunt as the First Didactic Piece
Thoman(n) von Hagelstein, Ernst Philipp (1657 Augsburg 1726). Didactic Pieces of Hunting. Set of 4 sheet. Mezzotints printed in brown. Sheet 1 inscribed: E. P. Thoman. excudit. 35.2 x 49.7 cm (sheets 1-3) subject size 34.3-35 x 49-49.4 cm.
Schwerdt III, 171, a (Baillie-Grohman’s copy; “A complete and interesting set”). – For fitting into an album three sides trimmed to platemark (only sheet 4 with fine margin) and below under loss of the German quatrains + numbering (Schwerdt: N.1–N.4), mounted by old on laid paper and lined in brown ink. In the white upper margin old inventory inscription (Nro 1, 7, 8, 6/Tom: X/Fol 88, 94, 95, 93), also in brown ink. – Smoothed centerfold.
Pictorially + instructively marvelous set
of complete extraordinary rarity
(here only the Schwerdt-Baillie-Grohman copy proven) in the fine impressions of a comprehensive old collection, richly nuanced in its chiaroscuro and, as all mezzotints by Ernst Philipp – “one of the best artists of his time”, Nagler – , even in single sheets, as here in 53 also not been present, extraordinarily rare. So then only one further sheet among the about 27,600 of sections I-XXVIII of Weigel’s Art Stock Catalog (1838/57; per 6,211 the portrait Rauner as also single one sheet known to Nagler + per 19,715 “Marten, Robbing a Dove’s Nest” by the son Tobias Heinrich).
Wolf Hunt
In the foreground three wolves at the pegged billy-goat shielded by two huntsmen as bait, one of them already shot; in the centre a carrion dragged by a horseman with also two wolves greeted by three huntsmen; in the background near a property the hunt by a pack and hands, the latter armed with pike, flail, and net. – Laterally right quite slightly rubbed and hair-like tiny fold.
Further fox hunt , hare hunt, and badger and hedgehog hunt.
Beyond the individual-specific rarity above of together general scarceness as result of the mezzotint technique itself. Already in 1675 the expert von Sandrart numbered “clean prints” of the velvety mezzotint manner at only c. “50 or 60” (!). “Soon after (the picture) grinds off for it not goes deeply into the copper.” Correspondingly in 1856 Thienemann referring to Ridinger :
“ The mezzotints are almost not to be acquired
on the market anymore … and the by far largest part (of them) …
(I have) only found (in the printroom) at Dresden. ”
See the complete description.
Offer no. 28,415 / price on application
Fighting Wolves and Lynx :
The Ostrich’s Pair of the “ Special Incidents … ”
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Ostrich + Casuar on an elevated viewpoint of a sovereign landscape defending themselves against three wolves (recte surely jackals as equally positioned in the tales as the foxes of the Bible, Th., declared as foxes also by Weigel, see below) + lynx resp. of which one of the latter has been finished. 2 sheets . Etchings with engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1731 Augsburg 1780). Inscribed: XXVI./XXVII. / Joh. El. Ridinger inv. et del. / Mart. El. Ridinger, sculps. A.V. + 6-liner subtext. 30 x 24.7-24.9 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 369/70. – The pair XXVI/XXVII – “if the numbers are missing later impressions will be by all known odds”, Th. – of the extreme rare 46-sheet set “Special Events and Incidents at the Hunt” ( “The rarest set of Ridinger’s sporting line engravings”, Schwerdt III, 140; 1928 ) worked by Martin Elias after fatherly drawings – here such of 1764, see nos. 396 + 395 of the Ridinger appendix inside the 1869 Weigel catalogue of the left drawings – and completed posthumously in 1779.
“Arranged almost throughout in such a way that always two by two harmonize with each other as they had been sold also in pairs.” – In each case one sheet was missing in the Schwerdt copy and in Baron Gutmann’s (Schwarz) second (?) copy inside the Pompadour volumes sold here of his spectacular Marjoribanks Folios. With his 1554-nos. Ridinger offer (cat. XXXIV) of 1900 Helbing could offer only 43 sheets and even 13 sheets were missing in the Coppenrath collection when it was sold in 1889/90. And the famous voluminous Ridinger collection of the counts of Faber-Castell had only three (!) when it was sold in 1958.
Of quite especially rarity the Casuar-ostrich, Th. 370, of the pair offered here valued by Helbing in 1900 as additionally “very rare” with the same prize as the separate pair of the Wild Ducks Hard-Pressed by Wild Cats and Foxes, Th. 389/90 missing also Faber-Castell. – With typographic watermark. – With 1.4/2.3-3.4 cm margins for the sides and 5-6 cm above and below. Here as also in the white text field a little dusty and a few weak small spots. Sheet 2 with a fold strip on the left side of the back.
Offer no. 14,123 / EUR 1380. / export price EUR 1311. (c. US$ 1786.) + shipping
“ Just as the Wolf
is a Very Voracious Hungry and Cunning Animal ”
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). La Trape du Loup. The Wolf Trap or Pit. “Just as the wolf is a very voracious hungry and cunning animal, so by good sportsmen its cunning is betrayed by counter-cunning …” In mountainous landscape four wolves, expected by three hunters lying in wait and their Alsatian, strive for a living duck or goose on a wolf disk. Etching & engraving. (1729.) Inscribed: avec privil. de Sa. Majeste Imperl. / Ioh. El. Ridinger inv. pinx. sculps. et excud. A.V. /, otherwise as above and with German-French didactic text. 30.1 x 22.7 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 18; Catalog Weigel XXVIII (1857), Ridinger appendix 3A. – From the unnumbered 36-sheet Princes’ Pleasure , listed by literature as its 6th sheet, and here one of the 8 small-sized ones as apparently conceived intentionally by Ridinger and rather not meant as pilot projects as Thienemann assumes.
Early impression of deeply staggered chiaroscuro on full sheet (40.3 x 50.3 cm) in the meaning of Weigel’s A quality (“Old impressions with the original title. The paper has lines as watermark.”) with watermark Great Fleur-de-lis (Strasbourg?). In the interest of optically more balanced sheet proportions later the half-size sheets were printed on smaller paper not conforming to binding.
Offer no. 15,462 / EUR 590. / export price EUR 561. (c. US$ 764.) + shipping
They do what they always did
Only recently again in Upper Lusatia / Saxony
27 Sheep in one Night
But of course absolutely no danger ( for humans )
Loups au Carnage, Les. Wolves attacking a herd of sheep and goats in hilly landscape. Toned wood engraving by Jules Huyot (Toulouse 1841 – Paris after 1882) after Jules Gélibert (Bagnères-de-Bigorre/Hautes-Pyrénées 1834 – Capbreton/Landes 1916). C. 1870. 22 x 32 cm.
Thieme-Becker XIII, 365; AKL LI, 198 f.: “(Gélibert produces) almost exclusively realistic animal and hunting depictions which concentrate on the chief subject”.
Offer no. 6,149 / EUR 118. (c. US$ 161.) + shipping
Into always , out nevermore
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The entrance of a Wolf Park. In moonlit thick forest place surrounded by high palisades with the wolf at the dead sheep, fuming with venom at the second one halting at the leap-off point. Etching + engraving. (1729.) Inscribed: Avec privil de Sa. Maj. Imp. / I. El. Ridinger inv. pinxit Sculps. et excud. Aug. Vind., otherwise as above along with multi-line caption in German & French. 34.4 x 42.8 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 40; Weitz, (Of the History of Hunting at the Vogelsberg), Museum Hunting Seat Kranichstein, 2006, full-page ills. p. 11.
The instructive painterly fine large sheet
28 of the Princes’ Hunting Pleasure as the first hunting set transferred into copper by Ridinger himself and additionally published by himself, conceived textbook-like, in a marvelous impression of also most finely wide margins: 3.5-6 cm above + below, 8.5-9.5 cm laterally, besides in the outer part, particularly below and right slightly fox-spotted. Isolated tiniest tears in the lower margin backed acid-freely.
“ It has this with the entrance of the boar park (sheet 20 of the set) almost complete conformity … when he recognizes his arrest, he begins after consumed prey and to his custom to howl heart-rendingly through which one can perceive his arrest especially at night, catch the one alive or bring him within shot with great pleasure, this invention is very good to catch many together, sporting words of him are partly these … and the like more. ”
Offer no. 15,017 / EUR 970. / export price EUR 922. (c. US$ 1256.) + shipping
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). A Roaming Wolf. In a rocky landscape. Etching + engraving. (1740.) Inscribed: J. E. Ridinger inv. fec. et exc. A. V. / N. 68., otherwise in German as before. 18.5 x 14.5 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 458. – Plate 68 of the instructive set Design of Several Animals (“These plates are much wanted”, Thienemann 1856). – Large figurative watermark. – Wonderful wide-margined impression of the 1st edition.
Offer no. 7,314 / EUR 175. (c. US$ 238.) + shipping
– – – The Wolf. Standing to the right on wooded rocky cliff. Below the explained large traces on soft and solid ground with specification of claws and pad. Toned lithograph by Hermann Menzler printed by A. Renaud for L. J. Heymann in Berlin. (1863-65.) Inscribed: Gez. v. J. E. Ridinger, lith. v. H. Menzler etc., otherwise in German as before. 35 x 23.1 cm.
Sheet I, 16 of Menzler’s 80-sheet set Joh. El. Ridinger’s Hunting Album, in which he presents the copies – here plate 8 of the Fair Game, Thienemann 170 – partly freely or compressed to their principal motif, resulting in a first degree enrichment of collections. – In the pictorial effect the works correspond to the manner of aquatint not used by Ridinger anymore. – On strong, wide-margined paper and except for a bruise below the image reaching to the subtext of impeccable freshness.
Offer no. 28,434 / EUR 345. / export price EUR 328. (c. US$ 447.) + shipping
– – – (The Wolf.) In dense forest pressed by nine hounds one of them finished. Etching + engraving. (1761.) Inscribed: J. E. Ridinger inv. del. sc. et exc. A. V. 28.7 x 25 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 145. – Sheet 7 of “The Fair Game hounded by Several Kinds of the Hounds”. – With instructive and detailed subtext giving especially the different races suitable to that. – Silver-toned impression watermarked with cut “Thurneisen” mark as located at Basel and preferably used by Engelbrecht/Herzberg at Augsburg for their editions about 1824. – With wide margins of 5-7.5 cm above and below and 2.3-5 cm for the sides resp.
Offer no. 28,116 / EUR 483. / export price EUR 459. (c. US$ 625.) + shipping
– – – A Wolf Hunt. Bursting out of the mountain forest and hunted and framed by nine hounds. Toned lithograph by Hermann Menzler printed by A. Renaud for L. J. Heymann in Berlin. (1863-65.) Inscribed: Gez. v. J. E. Ridinger, lith. v. H. Menzler etc., otherwise in German as before. 33.2 x 22.9 cm.
(Joh. El. Ridinger’s Hunting Album) II/17. – Cf. sheet 7 of the Fair Game Hounded by the Different Kinds of Hounds, Thienemann 144: “He defends himself courageously, but he will be defeated”. – From the “(Album of interesting Hunt and Group Pictures)” carried as the 2nd section. – On strong, wide-margined paper of perfect freshness. – Contrary to the etching the top roundness here stretched to a rectangle and thus additionally charming as collection enrichment.
Offer no. 28,450 / EUR 330. / export price EUR 314. (c. US$ 428.) + shipping
“ Among plenty kinds
there also is one of the best … ”
– – – How the Wolf is brought about the Carrion. In picturesque winter forest “the hind leg of a dead horse has been hung up a little high, so that the wolves can reach it only by jumping. This now one of the three ones baited about has done, but already the [three] hunters hidden in ambush bang away” (Th.). Etching & engraving. (1729.) Inscribed: Pars Vta. / Avec privil de Sa Maj. Imperiale / Ioh. Elias Ridinger invent. pinx. Sculps. et excudit Aug. Vindel., otherwise as above and with German-French didactic text. 33.7 x 41.7 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 39; Catalog Weigel XXVIII (1857), Ridinger appendix 3A (“Old impressions with the original title. The paper has lines as watermark.”). – From the unnumbered early 36-sheet Princes’ Pleasure , listed by literature as its 27th sheet.
“Among plenty kinds there also is one of the best to extinct this predatory animal …” – Margins 3.2-4 cm wide. – Some faint little brown spots in the wide white paper margin and platemark (1) as well as acid-freely backed tiny tear in the white lower margin.
THE AS INSTRUCTIVE AS PAINTERLY WINTER SHEET
– not by chance already in 1901 Ernst Welisch qualified Ridinger as the indisputably “most important Augsburg landscapist of this time” –
IN SPLENDID IMPRESSION OF SHINING CHIAROSCURO
as in such quality rare of old.
Offer no. 15,481 / EUR 1100. / export price EUR 1045. (c. US$ 1423.) + shipping
Wolves, Battue on. In front one of the hunters seizing roughly a wolf by the hind leg and aiming at it. The pack coming along. Toned wood engraving by Jules Huyot (Toulouse 1841 – Paris after 1882) after Jean Edouard Dargent, called Yan’Dargent (St.-Servais, Bretagne, 1824 – Paris 1899). Ca. 1870. 31.5 x 21.7 cm.
Offer no. 6,150 / EUR 118. (c. US$ 161.) + shipping
Belgium’s Most Perfect Baroque Church
The Church of the Parish of St. Loup
St Loup’s Church at Namur, Interior of. View of the altar with figures before it. Color lithograph by François Stroobant (Brussels 1819 – Elsene 1916). C. 1850. Inscribed: F. Stroobant del. et lith. / C. Muquardt éditeur. / Imp. Simonau & Toovey., otherwise in French, German, and English as above. 34.3 x 22.1 cm.
Boetticher II/2, 855. – “Belgian architectural painter … known by works and drawings to art history, especially of his homeland. Several of the drawings he has lithographed himself.”
Built 1621-1645 by Pieter Huyssens the former Jesuit church St. Ignatius is considered the most perfect example of baroque church construction in Belgium. After the expulsion of the Jesuits it became the church of the
parish of St. Loup .
Offer no. 15,446 / EUR 168. (c. US$ 229.) + shipping
“ Subject: Thanks!
Thanks for your kind reply. I wanted to comment that your thoughts on freedom (the quote that you had on the end of your message to me) are exactly the same as my beliefs.
I write, however, because I was surprised to get it from Europe … Although an American, almost all my early family were Huguenots … In fact, my relative, Jan C. is noted as the earliest C. to have arrived in N. America (in 1636, I think) … ”
(Mrs. C. F., November 14, 2003)