Bird of the Year 2005
The Eagle Owl
Bird of Wisdom
May the attention the eagle owl receives this year not only benefit the smaller members of its family as well, but the wisdom of the owls proverbial since antiquity also come over many a so-called “decision bearer” fancying himself imaginarily strong and sacred while he thinks about ever new strangulation of civil rights once gained in hard and bloody battles or expansions negating all cultural borders. For that in days to come one has not just saved the right of living for the owls, but could carry these again hither and thither as expression of human wisdom and far-sightedness …
“ Who suppresses weak ones , should not jubilate too much .
For quite easily a stronger one comes over him ”
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The poor hare becomes part of the sun-shy owl and that of the hunter’s barrel /: A rare case!:/ … Eagle owl with hare in the claws above hilly landscape with rocks under the full moon, looking down to the firing huntsman. Etching + engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1731 Augsburg 1780). Inscribed: III. / Joh. El. Ridinger inv. et del. / Mart. El. Ridinger sculps. Aug. Vind., otherwise in German as before and below. 35.2 x 23.9 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 346; Helbing XXXIV, Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger, 860: Rare (1900).
The very very fine scenery
as sheet III 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 fatherly designs and concluded posthumously in 1779. Whereby the two final lines of the subtext
“ Who suppresses weak ones , should not jubilate too much .
For quite easily a stronger one comes over him ”
document also here that Ridinger deliberately passed over in silence till now, who was subject of the “Dresden Address – The Minimized Ridinger” here given on the ceremonial act of the Technical University Dresden on occasion of his 300th birthday.
Marvelous impression of the first edition
with the Roman number
(“If they are missing, so this points to later impressions”, Thienemann)
with provenance Von Behr of the House Stellichte
assumedly purchased directly from the Ridingers between 1768 + before 1779, so just at times of foundation of the United States. The German Von Behr family itself reaching back far into the centuries. I. a. already in 1470 – 29 years before Columbus! – it was enfeoffed with the water castle in Stellichte, Lower Saxony, as the ancestral seat up to date.
WANGEN watermark. – Three sides with margins 3-4.5 cm wide and here partially quite minimally fox spotted, on the left 2 cm around the plate-margin itself nearly 1 cm wide though. Helbing’s copy then with only “almost full margin”.
Offer no. 14,465 / sold
“ On top , however , the Eagle Owl is enthroned … ”
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Bird-catcher going to the Fowling-floor with his Utensils. Oiseleur sur L’oiselerie tirant les filets. Etching and engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1731 Augsburg 1780). Ca. 1764. Inscribed: Joh. El. Ridinger inv. del. et exc. Aug. Vind. / Mart. El. Ridinger sculps., otherwise in German-French as above. 34 x 26 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 131. – Sheet 19 (“S.”) of the 25-sheet set of Hunters and Falconers with their Work, here
“ In the hands he carries the disk on the long pole, destined to the seat of the owl which has an important role with his catching. Beside him his trusty, well-loaded, thus quite slowly striding along white horse. On it poles, bird-cages, large and small, round and square, nets, cloth and what else not, on top, however, the long-eared owl is enthroned … In the background the well-equipped fowling-floor, the destination of the excursion. ”
Shining contrast-rich on buff laid paper as characteristic of the contemporary impressions. – Typographic watermark. – At the sides with 3.8-4 cm of fine, top and below with 7.8 and 7 cm resp. excellently wide margins.
Offer no. 28,593 / EUR 760. / export price EUR 722. (c. US$ 983.) + shipping
– – – The same as unused postcard in rotogravure after Ridinger for Felsing, Berlin. Ca. 1900-20. – After sheet 20 (Thienemann 132) of the “Hunters and Falconers”.
Offer no. 28,461 / EUR 29. (c. US$ 39.) + shipping
Not at all rare , but as protected as the Eagle Owl :
When Crows still were allowed to be hunted
Fröhlich, Ernst (Kempten 1810 – Munich 1882). (The Crow Shed.) / Chasse aux Oiseaux de Proie. Eagle owl sitting on the mast, above of it hater loosing feathers by the shot. Further coming nearer. Chalk lithograph by Victor-Jean Vincent Adam (Paris 1801 – Viroflay 1866). Inscribed: (Drawn by) Frœhlich. / Lyth. (by) V. Adam. / (Printed by) Lemercier, Benard & Co. / Bey Artaria & Fontaine in Mannheim / Chez Rittner & Goupil à Paris, otherwise in German-French as above. 28 x 31.6 cm.
From the 18-sheet set “(Hunting Memories)”. – Schoeller Coll. 426. – Not in Schwerdt. – The charming sujet with instructively drawn guide of the line. – The general fine foxspottedness barely impairing only. – In the extremely wide white margin waterstain lower right and backed minimal tear.
Offer no. 11,233 / sold
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Falconer Boy taking up the Eagle Owl from the Ground. Postcard in rotogravure after Thienemann 121 by O. Felsing, (Berlin-)Charlottenburg. C. 1900-1918. 14 x 9 cm.
Unused “ARTIST POSTCARD” after the sujet of the Falconers set etched by Martin Elias R. – “He rides a fine English stallion … above magpies fly …”.
Offer no. 28,458 / EUR 29. (c. US$ 39.) + shipping
And of what the wise owl warns – na , whom do you think ? – as well ?
… to take the continuance
of democratic constitutional rights
as guaranteed
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Innocence is saved often through the Hatred of the Evil. An owl once cheated by the fox warns “a flock of wild geese” to praise the death of Reynard the Fox as guaranteed. Etching + engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1731 Augsburg 1780). After 1767. Inscribed: J. El. Ridinger. inv. et del. / M. El. Ridinger. sc. et exc: A. V., otherwise in German, Latin, and French as before. 33.6 x 24.7 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 781; Metzner-Raabe, Illustr. Fabelbuch, 1998, vol. II (Bodemann), 123.I. – Sheet 17 of the Fables. – The
extraordinarily rare first supplementary sheet
of the intellectually as optically exceedingly charming “Instructive Fables from the Animals’ Kingdom for Improvement of the Manners and especially for Instruction of the Youth” 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, page 96).
Beyond that at the same time also, 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. ”
The set consists of 20 plates, of which Johann Elias, however, has published only the first sixteen. Presumably by stylistic scruple. For with the four last, etched/engraved only by his eldest, Martin Elias, and published posthumously, as then here, too,
he gives up the superabundance of the previous ,
his moreover only newly worked fable conception ,
in favour of a now also for himself thoroughly newly ,
sovereignly formulated large flat clearness
with which to grapple with he obviously has shied at the end though. And where to follow him was impossible for Thienemann, too, still one hundred years later (“have less artistic value, but are nevertheless estimable, and their rarity is to be regretted”). What here, however, is seen as a remarkably further developed artistic expressiveness.
Culminating just in the fascination
to have created not only a new fable image ,
but this , once more in itself , developed further to a new level .
Comparable in this connection, as quoted repeatedly by Ridinger, it may be pointed out to Watteau and here to his “Party in the Open/Park” in Berlin, on which Pierre Rosenberg notes: “… the Berlin painting is
an evidence for it that the artist wished to reinvent himself
by creation of a new type of composition …”
(Exhibition Catalogue Watteau, Washington/Paris/Berlin 1984/85, p. 415).
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.
That Ridinger had created his set originally substantially more voluminously is proven by his preparatory drawing sold here to the 20th fable inscribed by him with “Fab 31”, that to the 19th inscribed with “Fabel 29.” (Weigel, 1869, no. 384), and that further one numbered with “30” known to Thienemann, which has been unconsidered like other, unnumbered, ones, too.
The great rarity of the four supplementary sheets here as practically programmed known to literature since Thienemann’s statement of 1856: they “make themselves scarce, are not to be found already in some older editions, and have been left out completely in the newest, what however is to be regretted” (p. 151).
Accordingly then the 1889 catalogue of the Coppenrath Collection on the 20-sheet copy: “Fine chief set … Rare”. And in 1900 Helbing qualified in his 1554-item Ridinger catalogue (XXXIV): “The last (4) numbers are of highest rarity”. And while except for 12 + 13 he owned besides a complete copy multiple single copies of the first sixteen while of the last four only 17 + 19 in one additionally copy each. On the market till today then almost only the 16-sheet basic set.
After all the different printing states of the title, documenting the repeated editions, most beautiful proof for the success of the work, which obviously has reached his special target group, the youth.
Offer no. 12,511 / EUR 946. / export price EUR 899. (c. US$ 1224.) + shipping
“ World World / Oh Oh ”
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Oh Oh. The night owls consumed a poor little hare, so soon cats come along, too, and liked to take them together with the hare, there it is about hairs so about feathers. An eagle owl – Thienemann comments – , sitting on a captured hare, is attacked by two cats which want to take the hare from it. Above a second owl tries to fly down and hinder the robbery. ADDED: World World. The foxes fetched a banquet in the hen-house, but at once the dogs were hunted on them, and thus it is about feathers so about hairs. Two foxes – Thienemann comments – , one takes to his heels with a hen in the mouth, the other had dropped the killed cock to defend himself against a dog. Two further packers hurrying down an elevation to take part in the battle. / 2 sheets as lively wall-mighty sceneries in fine hilly water landscape (under the full moon), located each on the other side of the same water. Etching + engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1731 Augsburg 1780). Inscribed: XXXIII. and XXXIV. resp. / Joh. El. Ridinger. del: et inv: (l. 34: invin:, sic!) 1753. / M. El. Ridinger. Filio suo. sp. 1777, otherwise in German as before and below. 33.7-33.8 x 24.7-25.1 cm.
Thienemann + Schwarz 376/377; Helbing XXXIV, Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger, 892 + 893 (“RARE”, 1900!). – The pair XXXIII/XXXIV 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 fatherly designs and concluded posthumously in 1779, etched exclusively by Martin Elias after predominantly fatherly designs and concluded posthumously in 1779, here present
in marvelous impressions of the first edition
with the Roman number
(“If they are missing, so this points to later impressions”, Thienemann)
with provenance Von Behr of the House Stellichte
as above and assumedly purchased directly from the Ridingers between 1768 + before 1779, so just at times of foundation of the United States.
The set itself “arranged almost throughout so that always two by two correspond with each other and form pendants, just as they have been sold in pairs, too” (Th.). To the “World World” sheet follow as lines 4 f. “All brave bachelors are burdensome to the belles, but the latter in their turn often dangerous to the former”, on which Thienemann remarks laconically “But how maidens and bachelors fit here Ridinger may know”. The “Oh Oh” sheet with lines 4 f.
“ There is no end to robbing and killing ,
and so outrage becomes the third sin ”.
The German Von Behr family itself reaching back far into the centuries. I. a. already in 1470 – 29 years before Columbus! – it was enfeoffed with the water castle in Stellichte, Lower Saxony, as the ancestral seat up to date.
Rounded undulation at top. – WANGEN watermark. – Margins of sheet 33 on three sides, and here partially weakly fox-spotted, 3.5-5.5 cm wide, on the left with only 0.5-1 cm (here slight trace of glue in the upper third) around the white plate-margin itself 1 cm wide though. – Margins of sheet 34 on three sides 2.6-6.8 cm wide, on the left with 1.5 cm, half of which with former stitching fold with stitching holes, around the said wide white plate-margin. – Helbing had the sheet “with almost full margin” only.
Offer no. 14,496 / sold
(Eagle-Owl, The.) Huntsman with the eagle-owl on his arm. Wood engraving after Herbert König (Dresden 1820 – Niederlößnitz near D. 1876). (1876.) 16.7 x 13.8 cm.
Offer no. 11,668 / EUR 50. (c. US$ 68.) + shipping
„ Sehr geehrter Herr Niemeyer, Grüß Gott,
Ihre Graphiksendung ist wohlbehalten angekommen. Ich habe mich sehr gefreut über die Schönheit der Blätter und ihren ausgezeichneten Erhaltungszustand. Vielen herzlichen Dank. Mit diesen Blättern kann ich in den entsprechenden Folgen einige schmerzliche Lücken schließen … Nachdem ich Kassensturz gemacht habe, der günstig ausgefallen ist, folgt hier eine weitere Bestellung … Ich hoffe, dass die Blätter nicht inzwischen verkauft wurden …
Mit freundlichen Grüßen nach Padingbüttel “
(Herr W. G., 3. August 2009)