2003
came the Breakthrough — he became Animal of the Year
Yet Wolf remains Wolf
Furtive & Shy — And Darned Persistent
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., title in German as before. 18.5 x 14.5 cm. – Thienemann & Schwarz 458. – Plate 68 of the instructive set Design of Several Animals. – Large figurative watermark. – Wonderful wide-margined impression of the 1st edition. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 7,314 / EUR 175. (c. US$ 230.) + shipping
– – – The same, yet colored by later hand in attractive fitting palette as quite unusual for original impressions. – Impression of the 1st edition on fine laid paper.
Offer no. 15,738 / EUR 180. (c. US$ 237.) + shipping
Wolves in Misty Sphere
— getting Wind as Occasion demands
Two of them by moon just showing through before but ghostly perceptible farm. Wood engraving by Jules Huyot (Toulouse 1841 – Paris after 1882) after Ernest Bellecroix (active 1863-1877? in France). C. 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$ 86.) + shipping
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). A Wolf lurking for Prey. Half covered by the low branches of an old oak tree. Colored etching & engraving. (1740.) Inscribed: J. E. R. fec. / N. 69., otherwise in German as above. 18.5 x 15.1 cm. – Thienemann & Schwarz 459. – Plate 69 (in later edition 59) of the Design of Several Animals. – Impression of the 1st edition on fine laid paper. – Colored by later hand in attractive fitting palette as quite unusual for original impressions.
Offer no. 15,739 / EUR 170. (c. US$ 224.) + shipping
Decidedly “ Blood-curdling Scene ” (Th.)
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Loups de 3. ou 4. ans et qui sont d’une age accomplie ont 8. ou 9. petis et vivent a 20. ans. Wolves of 3-4 Years and full-grown ones have 8-9 Whelps, 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. 34.5 x 42 cm.
Thienemann & Schwarz 216. – Sheet 21 of the Study of the Wild Animals. – Title in German-French-Latin parallel text. – 14-lines caption by Brockes in German. – Margins on three sides 2.7-3.2, on the right 5.5 cm wide. – The just also in regard of the landscape exceedingly beautiful scenario in an impression of shining-marvelous quality and therefore rarity. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 15,589 / EUR 690. / export price EUR 656. (c. US$ 864.) + shipping
– The same as unused rotogravure postcard after Ridinger at Felsing, Berlin. C. 1900-1920. 9.1 x 14.1 cm.
Offer no. 28,466 / EUR 29. (c. US$ 38.) + shipping
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). A Wolf consuming the Prey. Breaking up with lust a roebuck on a clearing in the woods. Colored etching & engraving. (1740.) Inscribed:J. E. R. fec. / N. 70., otherwise in German as above. 18.4 x 15.1 cm. – Thienemann & Schwarz 460. – Plate 70 (in later edition 58) of the Design of Several Animals. – Watermark fleur de lis. – Impression of the 1st edition on fine laid paper. – Colored by later hand in attractive fitting palette as quite unusual for original impressions.
Offer no. 15,740 / EUR 180. (c. US$ 237.) + shipping
The Hunting of the Wolf
Front left with the gun with depiction of the use of the ramrod, too, besides an already killed one. In the center two following 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) after Antonio Tempesta (Florence 1555 – Rome 1630). 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 predominantly 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 painterly 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$ 178.) + shipping
– Ditto next to a flock of sheep before a building by use of sword and pikes, the pursuit by horse, and
the driving into the net .
In the large group in front the attacked wolf still 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$ 165.) + 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 9. – With the watermark Amsterdam coat of arms with lion. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 28,560 / EUR 99. (c. US$ 130.) + shipping
The Iron
mounted on a Chain strangles the Neck
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Wolf in the Iron Trap. 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 catch the Wild Animals”, regarded by Halle in Munich in 1928 as the “Rarest of all hunting sets by Ridinger” (LXVIII/323). – Instructive 6-line caption. – 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$ 557.) + shipping
The Wolf is already seized by the Throat
Mountain Dogs Fighting with a Wolf. From the chalet the herdsman comes along with his gun. Toned wood engraving after Friedrich Specht (Lauffen on the Neckar 1849 – Stuttgart 1909) for A. Cloß, Stuttgart. (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$ 111.) + shipping
Loups, Une Battue aux. In the fore one of the hunters has seized a wolf by the hind leg and aims 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, Brittany, 1824 – Paris 1899). C. 1870. 31.5 x 21.7 cm. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 6,150 / EUR 118. (c. US$ 155.) + shipping
Isengrim. Before wintry wood looking at the beholder. Wood engraving by Jules Huyot (Toulouse 1841 – after 1882) after Jules Gélibert (Bagnères-de-Bigorre/Hautes-Pyrénées 1834 – 1916). C. 1870. Inscribed: Jhuyot. / Jules Gélibert, otherwise in German as above. 14.8 x 21.8 cm. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 11,220 / EUR 65. (c. US$ 86.) + shipping
The First of which already falling into the Pit
A Unique Drawing 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. Erected in its midst a pole with a wheel on top on which a lamb lies whose bleating baited four wolves, the first one already falling 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 surrounding margins up to 17 mm wide. – Pinhead-small little hole, smoothed folds athwart and along resp., and generally somewhat age-marked, yet practically not impairing the fine general impression. Foxspots blotted quite faintly from the previous mounting carton except for one perceptible on the back only.
Pictorially absolutely perfectly executed splendid work
as original drawing before being re-drawn in reverse for the transfer onto the plate for the etching of the same name Th. 41 as the large version of the two wolf pit sheets for the set Princes’ Hunting Pleasures published since 1729 and in such complete execution in relation to a print
ranking with the greatest rarities today also in Ridinger’s œuvre .
See the complete description.
Offer no. 15,450 / price on application
The Wolf Hunt as 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 52 years also not been present, extraordinarily rare. So then also 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 only one known to Nagler, and per 19,715 a Marten, robbing a Pigeon’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 center a carrion dragged by a horseman with also two wolves greeted by three huntsmen; in the background at 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. – Besides fox hunt , hare hunt, as well as badger & hedgehog hunt.
Beyond the individual-specific rarity of at the same time 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 about “50 or 60” (!). “However, soon after (the picture) grinds off for it does not go deeply into the copper”. Correspondingly then 1856 Thienemann with regard 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
“ Just as the Wolf
is a very … 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 strive for a living duck or goose on a wolf disk, expected by three hunters lying in wait and their Alsatian. 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.
A 1728 drawing on the market in the late 50s of corresponding size, pictorially still deviating – only one wolf, no hunters – was inscribed as How the Wolf is brought onto the Disk with the Goose and catched in the pit. However, the repetition of the same sujet Th. 84 of the set of the Means to Capture of 1750 with otherwise the same text refers to a duck.
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$ 739.) + shipping
– – – The Wolf. In dense forest pressed by a pack of 9, of which one is done. “He defends himself bravely, but he will be … defeated” (Th.). 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 caption
with specification by name of the various hounds suitable to this .
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. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 28,116 / EUR 483. / export price EUR 459. (c. US$ 604.) + shipping
– – – The Wolf. Standing to the right on wooded rocky cliff. Below the explained large traces on soft and solid ground resp. together 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 from Menzler’s 80-sheet Joh. El. Ridinger’s Hunting Album in which he represents the model – here sheet 8 of the Fair Game, Th. 170 – partly freely or compressing their central motif, from which a first degree collection enrichment results. – In the pictorial effect the works correspond to the aquatint manner not used by Ridinger anymore. – The contusion in the buff wide-margined paper extending from left below the subject to the caption aside of impeccable freshness.
Offer no. 28,434 / EUR 345. / export price EUR 328. (c. US$ 432.) + shipping
– – – A Wolf Hunt. Bursting to the right out of the mountain forest and hunted and pursued 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 above. 33.2 x 22.9 cm.
(Joh. El. Ridinger’s Hunting Album II/17.) – After the sheet above of the Fair Game hounded by Several Kinds of Hounds, Th. 145, but without its extensive caption. – From the “(Album of Interesting Hunt and Group Pictures)” carried as 2nd part. – On strong, wide-margined paper of perfect freshness. – Contrary to the etching the top arch here stretched to a rectangle and thus additionally charming as collection enrichment. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 28.450 / EUR 330. / export price EUR 314. (c. US$ 413.) + shipping
“Among Plenty Kinds
there also is one of the best …”
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Comme on attire les Loups par charogne. 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.
The preparatory drawing in pencil figured in the 1890 Wawra sale of A Fine Collection of Drawings and Engravings of Joh. El. Ridinger’s from the Estate of a Known Collector as lot 100, besides per 101 a not completed draft in chalk. An obviously further one in reverse in black chalk and pencil in Weigel’s catalog of 1869, Ridinger appendix 491, with but one hunter placed in addition on the right.
“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$ 1376.) + shipping
Wintter, Joseph Georg (1751 Munich 1789). The Stag of Odd 20 Points attacked by Wolves. In mountainous winter landscape with fence and set back farm one of the two wolves has grasped the stag by the throat while the half covered other one operates from behind. 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 Schwerdt III, 190, a ( “Rare“ ) of 1821 the earliest. The 137-sheet complete edition Weigel 21336 (“Most sheets very rare”, 1857!) here not provable elsewhere.
His “etchings are excellent and are in the treatment between those by Hollar and Riedinger. In 1784 W. became electoral court and hunting engraver” (Nagler, 1863 pointing himself in vol. III, no. 68, of the Dictionary of Monogramists at the rarity of these fine sheets). – Impression rich in contrast on strong laid paper. – Below trimmed to platemark, otherwise hard by the edge of the subject.
Offer no. 15,665 / EUR 685. / export price EUR 651. (c. US$ 857.) + shipping
Loups au Carnage, Les. A flock of sheep and goat attacked by wolves in mountainous 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: (Gélibert) produces almost exclusively animal and hunt pictures … – See the illustration.
Offer no. 6,149 / EUR 118. (c. US$ 155.) + shipping
As can be seen from all this
this species does what it did always .
So, as rememberable here for instance, in the early 2000s in Upper Lusatia, Saxony, with
27 sheep in one night
being as he is
“ exceedingly bloodthirsty … Yet he slays much more than he can eat … Man he avoids as much as possible;
a woman or child he may well attack ,
but on man usually only packs tormented by hunger go, not easily individual wolves.
He shows as much cunning , slyness and audacity
as the fox … incited by hunger he gets … bold, foolhardy and then defies any scarecrow … Usually the wolf of the tale presents himself
diabolically , now deceitful and vicious , now as a fool ”
(Meyer’s Konversations-Lexikon, 4th ed., XVI [1890], 721).
But that’s 122 years ago of course. And so among his protectors today it’s taken for granted :
Dangerous ?
The dog, indeed. The wolf never! And so he does not go on his own account his theme will stay pressing. Illustrating how this species does it generally :
In always , out never .
Turning this table was custom once. And was engraved by Ridinger straight from the shoulder :
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; Silesian Ridinger collection at Boerner XXXIX (1885), 1772 (only as new impression); 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 Ridinger’s first hunting set transferred into copper by 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$ 1214.) + shipping
„ vielen Dank für die schnelle und unkomplizierte Lieferung “
(Herr H.-G. S., 27. August 2008)