Aha
after a strong historic quarter
niemeyer’s returns into the low points of the presence
Here then
Jumbo for President !
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). (Elephants in different positions as have been seen … in 1741 … and drawn from life by P. F. Gudenus …). Set of four sheets. Etching + engraving. Inscribed: … in Kvpffer gebracht dvrch I. E. Ridinger in Avgspvrg M(D)CCXIIV (sic, recte MDCCXLIV/1744)and (2-4) P. F. v. G. ad viv. del. 1741. / I. E. Ridinger sculpsit A.V. resp., otherwise as above + below. 30.1-30.4 x 20.7-20.8 and, pl. 4, 20.6 x 30.2 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz (ills. I, plate 16) 537-540. – Watermark Great Fleur-de-lis (pl. 1) and Great Crown with initials A M in the inner ring (pl. 3) resp. – On strong laid paper with excellent wide margins of laterally 7 and 9-11.5 cm top + and bottom. The feeble, smoothed centerfold perceptible in the white margin only. The title sheet quite minimally dusted as with regard to the preserved stitching almost inevitable.
The Elephants of Gudenus ,
held together
by their original crosswise stitching in the upper margin :
One of the rarer Small Special Sets of the Œuvre
and in respect of just the original crosswise stitching here as following :
Elephant Leader … (together title sheet) – An Elephant in highest harness to be seen from front … (by Thienemann intended for sheet 3) – A walking Elephant to be seen laterally … Th.: pl. 2) – An Elephant pegged up in the Lair, laying down, or standing up … .
According to a kind notice from the Gudenus family (2004) Philipp Ferdinand Baron von Gudenus is not involved as author of the drawings sent to Ridinger as imparted by Schwarz (1910) + Thieme-Becker XV (1922), 191, but Philipp Franz as a distant nephew, see NDB.
Evenly fine impressions as with these wide margins
and with moreover still original stitching
not often available on the market .
Offer no. 28,644 / sold
So a good many people here and there
would like to have it
Howitt, Samuel (1765 – Somers Town 1822)? … Method of Taming Elephants. Elephant in the taming frame in landscape with trees. Aquatint for Edward Orme, London, in its original coloring. Inscribed: Published & Sold Jany. 1st. 1813, by Edwd. Orme, Bond St. London., otherwise as above. 17.8 x 23.3 cm.
(FOREIGN FIELD SPORTS XXI.) – Schwerdt I (1928), 177 ff.: “The coloured plates … especially those drawn by Howitt, are fine, both as regards draughtsmanship and colouring … (The book) is sure to increase in value … ”. – Highly instructive representation, if one wishes to try it.
Additional elephant sheets of the set available .
Offer no. 11,766 / EUR 91. (c. US$ 124.) + shipping
“ But the conditions , they are not so ”
( Bert Brecht )
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Vengeance of a Lowly on a Mighty is pernicious (or, so in the new edition of 1825, Powerless rage destroys itself). An elephant – for the Indian poets “symbol of wisdom and sympathy …
and eight elephants support the universe ”
(Meyer’s Convers.-Lex., 4th ed., V, 510/II), one of them together then the leader of the Grand Old Party, too, – travelling on an educational trip through Europe has hurt inadvertently a pertness little fox
whereupon its whole tribe considered to punish the colossus .
But shortly “the army was pulverized”.
Etching + engraving. (1744.) Inscribed: J. E. Ridinger inv. sculp. et excud., otherwise as above in German, French, and Latin. 33.6 x 25.1 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 771; Metzner-Raabe, Illustr. Fabelbuch, 1998, vol. II (Bodemann), 123.I. – Sheet 7 of the intellectually as optically exceedingly charming “Instructive Fables from the Animals’ Kingdom for Improvement of the Manners
and especially for the Instruction of (well , whose do you think) ”
by which
“ Ridinger pursued a typical purpose of his epoch. A ‘Correction of Manners’ by the morale efficacy of art – though in quite a different manner – William Hogarth, almost of the same age as Ridinger, had attempted by his paintings and prints … Yet while Hogarth and Chodowiecki tried to gain recognition for their (identical) ideas by satirical sets, as A Rake’s Progress, 1735 (compl. set & single sheets available) … Ridinger built on the – especially suitable to him (that is, so he himself, ‘since the hoary times of the ancient ages’) – tradition of the animal fable ”
(Stefan Morét, Ridinger Catalog Darmstadt, 1999, p. 96).
And specially hereto Ridinger himself :
“ The elephant did a travel to Europe to become acquainted with the traditions there … and had the misfortune to tread off the tail of a young fox who was, by forwardness to view him, coming too near to him. The fox … set up a great shout and called to his folks to revenge this shame and insult, which
this ( Non-European )
has done to him. All came to terms about this and considered how they could attack so that their revenge would be carried out. It did not lack of artfulness and rage, but, nevertheless, it went off badly … This went so to heart of an old fox that he began to shout at the top of his voice:
Oh tyrannical manifestation !
No , the elephant said , on such a revenge such a deserts follows .”
Pictorially by the way Ridinger, creating a new image type, leaving behind once more tradition and field. For, so Ulrike Bodemann in Metzner-Raabe,
“ No similarities to fable illustrations known hitherto .
Enormous image sizes filled almost entirely by the representation of a central factor of the fable tale. Surroundings mostly dense, natural wood .”
And Regine Timm, ibid., vol. I, p. 171 :
“ In his large plates Ridinger … sometimes has included vegetable growth or rocks, too, dominantly in his illustrations indeed, but without decorative intention. The plants and rocks mean the thicket, the deserted loneliness of the forest, in which the strange tales among the animals happen. ”
Ridinger’s fable image then also a highly momentous milestone within the “basic corpus of about 900 editions of illustrated fable books” up to Chagall’s Lafontaine folio with its 100 etchings worked 200 years later as downright a glaring light for the immortality of the fable illustration. – More of these highly interesting Ridinger fables here in stock .
Chronologically interesting in this connection interesting that on the other side of the channel in 1726 John Gay, famous-notorious for his “Beggars Opera” (Brecht, Threepenny Opera!), had presented by his Fables “the most important achieved hitherto by English poets in this kind” (Meyers Konvers.-Lex., 4th ed., VI, 960/II).
The watercoloured original pen drawing in the same direction from the Weigel sale (not in the 1869 catalogue of the bequeathed drawings), figuring as “Splendid, completely executed water colour” per lot 110 on the 1890 Ridinger sale at Wawra in Vienna, now in a Bavarian Ridinger collection. That drawing in reverse used for the transfer on the copper-plate was on the market in the 1980s. And a executed study of the elephant in the 1990s in America.
Splendid early impression . – Above mostly trimmed on platemark, otherwise throughout with a little margin additionally to the fine white platemark itself. Brown stipples in the left ear of the elephant.
Offer no. 12,505 / EUR 649. / export price EUR 617. (c. US$ 840.) + shipping
Peacable ,
but if Necessary of Powerful Savagery
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). An American Bison as he fights off the attacking Bears . In light grotto with outlook on splendid width, interrupted by two rocky formations,
One against Three ,
of whose latters are two practically already knock out .
Etching + engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1731 Augsburg 1780). Inscribed: XVIII. / Ioh. Elias Ridinger, inv. et del. / M. El. Ridinger, sc. A. V., otherwise in German as above. 26 x 35.9 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 361. – Sheet XVIII 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 Johann Elias’ eldest after predominantly fatherly designs.
At which not only after realization here Martin Elias’ importance for the Ridinger œuvre is much larger than that of an engaged co-worker as engraver only. Already at an age of thirty he just acted as a spiritus rector behind the backstage ensuring that sets were completed or, as here, edited posthumously.
And as Wolf Stubbe (Joh. El. Ridinger, 1966, pp. 16 f. + pl. 34), going in medias res, celebrates Th. 722, The Wild Buffalo and the Crocodile, from the Fights of Killing Animals as an artistic zenith of the late work in respect of its luminous efficiency, he pays tribute together, because judging by the plate, not the drawing, to Martin Elias as the etcher/engraver of that work. An aspect illustrating deeply the Ridinger team-work.
The powerful scenery – God bless America! – in
splendid first impression with the Roman number
(“If they are missing, so this points to later impressions”, Thienemann) in mint condition with margins laterally 3.7 and 4.8, above 6.8 and below 5.8 cm wide resp.
Offer no. 15,714 / EUR 1176. / export price EUR 1117. (c. US$ 1521.) + shipping
Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). Four Prints of an Election. Set of 4 sheet engravings by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinx(t). / T. Cook, sculp(t). / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees(,) & Orme(,) (May 1st. 1807 – Oct. 1st. 1809). Subject size 14.6-15.5 x 18.8-19.7 cm.
1. Humours of an Election Entertainment. – 2. Canvassing for Votes. – 3. Polling at the Hustings. – 4. Chairing the Members.
Hogarth’s famous set full of contemporary allusions – belonging to his “most mature creations” (Thieme-Becker) and here in Cook’s small repetition – is
the best known graphic depiction of an election of representatives .
Its origin in the classic country of parliamentarism imparts a particular significance to it. For it is at the same time – inspired by events in Oxfordshire during the elections of 1754, published 1755-58 – the portrait of not only corrupt politicians and parties, but of a rotten society as such. After all besides the usual feast and gorge documented on all plates as part of every election in Hogarth’s time bribery,
“ … first pursued systematically by Sir Robert Walpole and the Whigs, (was) practiced still far more scandalously than later; so it remained during the second half of the past century and till our days … Because then the possession of a parliamentary place was frequently regarded as a simple trade speculation, as the elected sold … his vote to the government for a sum of money, a sinecure, a post or a delivery, and thereupon could be re-elected by a rotten borough, a procedure which was so much easier as the minister Walpole had raised such a bribery of the members of the parliament – ‘every man has his price’ – literally to a system of government. Also Hogarth’s present plates give allusions of this ”
(Lichtenberg). – And Thieme-Becker sum up:
“ … a delightful satire on the vice of bribery
and the demoralization of the people tied to that . ”
But beyond the fullness of allusions Hogarth puts a special stamp on the abjectness and venal partiality of the whole proceedings. As these plates, too, are together caricatures or parodies of classic – and by this pure and clean – works from the Renaissance and Baroque:
So the first leaf up to the caption – not included in this version anymore – “He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me” after Leonardo’s Last Supper. Followed by plate two with the farmer being bribed by both sides as inversion of The Choice of Hercules. The election itself in turn taking up Tizian’s Presentation of the Virgin while the last leaf, the triumphal march of the elected new member of the parliament, even alludes to Alexander the Great in Le Brun’s Victory of Alexander over Darius. Whereby the imperial eagle there had to give way to a goose here. Which by that what it lets fall even anticipates the new member’s contribution to the parliamentary debate.
This embedding in the canon of timeless art imparting to the set together and contrary to Lichtenberg’s reading that the pictures and their details were intelligible only from and in their own time
their own timelessness valid over the centuries .
Which is even stressed by Hogarth’ often ambiguous or – depending on time and position – differently interpretable sarcasm. – See also the following “A Country Inn Yard”, especially its analogous version 8,941.
Offer no. 8,895 / EUR 375. / export price EUR 356. (c. US$ 485.) + shipping
– – – The same. Set of 4 sheets steel engravings. C. 1850. Inscribed. 12.9-13.5 x 15.8-16.2 cm.
Offer no. 12,169 / EUR 249. (c. US$ 339.) + shipping
Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). A Country Inn Yard (or The Election Procession in the Yard). The last travelers enter the overland stagecoach, the postilion already took the driver’s seat, and the landlady acting as postmaster urges for hurry by heavily ringing the bell. In the front a hunched small postilion asks a corpulent gentleman changing coaches here for a gratuity for the previous stage. Engraving. Inscribed: Design’d and Engrav’d by W. Hogarth. — Publish’d According to Act of Parliament. 1747. 22 x 31 cm.
Nagler 30. – After the painting of 1747. – Regardless of the rich postal scene the actual happenings – in addition to the Four Prints of an Election before – concern the mockery of a
“ candidate defeated in a parliamentary election ”
whose stuffed figure – as already in regard of the Duke of Newcastle on plate 1 of the Election set – is carried round in a procession of the opposing party. This all the more annoying as the defeat is caused by formalities, that is the yet barely missed age of the candidate, and thus was foreseeable. Accordingly unwillingly an agent of the unfortunate – a copy of the Act against bribery and corruption in his pocket – foots the bill for the wasted election entertainment to the landlord.
“ The well-known plate … shows with Dickens’ humour a comfortable depiction of rural petty bourgeoisie ”
(Thieme-Becker XVII, p. 297, 2).
Impression on strong paper from the plate retouched by the royal engraver James Heath (1757 London 1834) about 1822 (“Even these impressions have become relatively rare today though”, Art Gallery Esslingen 1970; and Meyers Konv.-Lex., 4th ed., VIII [1888], 625: “A fine edition”, esteemed also already by contemporary collectors of the rank of for instance an A. T. Stewart [Catalog of the Stewart Collection, New York 1887, 1221, “fine plates”]).
Offer no. 7,803 / EUR 135. (c. US$ 184.) + shipping
– – The same in engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinxt. / T. Cook & Son sc. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, May 1st. 1808. Subject size 12.2 x 17.1 cm.
Cook’s smaller version, engraved together with his son. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark.
Offer no. 8,941 / EUR 60. (c. US$ 82.) + shipping
– – The same in engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840). Inscribed: W. Hogarth pinx. 1747. / E. Riepenhausen sc. 21.3 x 26.7 cm.
Riepenhausen’s works after Hogarth ( “ very valuable ” ) belong to his major work and are partially even preferred to those by Hogarth. – In regard of the especially fine, buff paper supposedly an impression for a special edition about 1830. – Margins somewhat age-spotted. Equally the image itself slightly.
Offer no. 7,804 / EUR 118. (c. US$ 161.) + shipping
Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Politician. The politician reading the newspaper, holding the candle close to his eyes for better reading while not becoming aware of how it burns through his hat. Engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinxt. / T. Cook sculpt. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, July 1st. 1809., otherwise as above. Image size 17.8 x 14.3 cm.
Cook’s (“made his mark as Hogarth engraver, too”, Thieme-Becker) smaller version. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark. – Barely perceptible slight fold in the lower image/platemark.
Published posthumously only the drawing alludes to the circumstances about 1730. The politician – by the way the then well-known London lace dealer Tibson – looking fascinatedly at the continental events of which the paper reports, while disregarding his own nearest problems indicated by his burning hat.
Offer no. 9,004 / EUR 189. (c. US$ 257.) + shipping
If therefore a world historic turning-point in the Indian Punjab
or
2330 years later a presidential election in God’s own country ,
what ever occupies your mind
niemeyer’s has the suitable for it
„ Danke für den wunderbaren (Ridinger-)Scan … der meine Argumentation zur Verwechslung in der Staffierung der Porzellane dokumentarisch bestens belegt. Darf ich um Ihre Zustimmung bitten, ihn in meiner Arbeit zeigen zu dürfen? “
(Herr J. R., 7. Juni 2004)