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Ridinger, Johann Elias. (Representation of the Fair Game with the respective Traces and Scents, Goings, Get-offs, Turns, Flight, and other Signs … drawn from Life) / Abbildung Der Jagtbaren Thiere mit derselben angefügten Fährten und Spuhren, Wandel, Gänge, Absprünge, Wendungen, Widergängen, Flucht, und anderer Zeichen mehr … nach der Natur gezeichnet, samt einer Erklärung darüber. Augsburg, the author (1737-)1740. Large fol. 1 l. title. With pictorially executed large etched title vignette “Search-Hunter with Leader” (15.3 x 23.4 cm) and, mixed with engraving,

proofs  before  the  numbering

that had been added in the right sequence at the same place in pen and ink

by  the  master  himself

as it is the conviction here sounded by wide comparisons of the numbers with Ridinger’s writing. Additionally

with  two  other  important  deviations .

Ruby red morocco volume with 5 imitated ribs, 2 dark green back-plates, gilt two-piece title on the front + Ridinger-stag vignette on the back cover, gilt lines on both, and ruby red fly leaves. In desert-colored morocco cassette with imitated ribs and with the

in reverse (37.9 x 30.4 cm) traced back here far beyond Thieme-Becker (vol. XXVIII, 1933, p. 308) + Thienemann (1856), p. XXIII, seamlessly directly to the master’s estate itself as removable solitaire laid into the front cover under polycarbonate glass (more resistant to aging + UV light than Plexiglas, but equally sensitive to scratches), inscribed

» 1. / J. E. Ridinger inv. del. sc. et exc. A. V. «

Above the artist’s name and below the

and in the inner front cover below ridinger handlung niemeyer (ridinger gallery niemeyer), all in 23.5 carat. (Bookbindery M. Hierl Bonn, 67 x 45 x 5 cm, 10,5 kg.)

Thienemann (without knowledge of states before numbering) + Schwarz (Cat. of a Ridinger-collection, color plate vol. I, X) 162-185; Weigel XXVIII, 15,  before  A (of C); Thiébaud 783; Ridinger Cat. Helbing XXXIV, 325 ff., all in the final state with the etched number upper right; however, Helbing 354 + 356 bare of any numbering + 359, 362, 364, 366, 369 + 374, in each case marked “proof with written instead of engraved number”; Schwerdt III, 137; Ridinger Catalogue Darmstadt, 1999, III.20-III.30 with 11 ills.

Thus are plates 1-20  PROOFS  before  the first edition, plates 21-23 with the reduced traces in the final state with printed numbers, plate 22 printed from two plates with loss of one parting line as known for all three plates from Schwerdt’s copy as one sold here in earlier years and seen as later interim state. Entirely printed on finer laid paper than usual and thus stressing

the  brilliant  quality  of  shining  chiaroscuro

according to the state.

All inscribed in the plate with several variants of J(ohann) E(lias) Ridinger inv(enit) del(ineavit) sc(ulpsit) et exc(udit) A(ugusta) V(indelicorum), plts. 21-23 without invenit. – Title in red and black.

Without the text sheet which “is concerned one and only with the scents and could be new and important for the young hunter only” (Thienemann), the “(Preliminary Report)” on the back of the title covered by mounting. – The plates always trimmed on or near to the platemark and, with the exception of the singular opening lion, mounted two by two on full sheets (folded once to ca. 63 x 42 cm) of Whatman paper with watermark “J. Whatman / Turkey Mill / 1832”, what

The latter quite in the tradition of the great Vasari (1511-1574, “first systematic collector of artists drawings”) who his drawings, harmoniously arranged, “pasted … onto large-scale album pages” (National Gallery Washington regarding the 2006 exhibition “Six Centuries of Master Drawings celebrate 15^th anniversary of arrival of Woodner Collection”).

To the conviction here

Ridinger’s  Personal  Copy

with a high degree of certainty in 1830 together with the bequest of the drawings passed into the hands of J. A. G. Weigel in Leipsic. Cornerstone of this thought is the 1832 Whatman paper on which the etchings are mounted.

For paper as make-up corresponding with a copy of early printing quality of the set “Fights of Killing Animals” (Th. 716-723) sold here formerly, at which temporal congruence – 1830 + 1832 – and marks respecting state + preservation lead to Mr. Weigel and over this beyond to the bequest as source. Working up the acquired immensely rich stock Weigel obviously had mounted trimmed sets on Whatman, but without also still let bind them.

From the estate the trace leads, as documented in detail further below,

For the numbering, already in itself remarkably correct and corresponding with the later engraved one, comes across on a parallel to a single sheet at present here in stock in splendid printing quality. This – sheet 19, marten + weasel, Th. 181 – points at the same place the numbering “19” likewise written by hand. The comparison of both “19” makes out sufficiently clearly the same hand, showing at the end of the undertook extensive general comparison of signatures Ridinger himself as writer. Who therefore soon after printing the first impressions of the just completed plates realized the missing numbering as deficiency and this remedied by hand at the copies already in stock, but for the future in the plate.

The mark of state “before” the numbering apart from Helbing’s eight single sheets, six of which numbered by hand, but without – so far as corresponding with the ones here – linking them up with Ridinger, still known sporadically. So in our 70s and 80s respectively each one copy figures – once without, once with written numbering – on the market, the first with the qualification “Presumably proofs because

no  impressions  before  the  numbering  were  known  to  Thienemann  either ”.

Such ones – neither before the numbering nor even before all letter, the latter at the roebuck Th. 171 in Bavarian private collection or so – not became known to Wend, too, for his (Supplemental Handbook to the Definitive Catalogs of the Printed Graphic) in which Ridinger occupies much room (vol. I, 1, Leipsic 1975, pp. 300-376).

But this irresistible charm for the engaged collector as going out from an additionally expecially important suite numbered by the artist’s own hand will be additionally still intensified by

In the later editions numbered in print these deviations have been corrected or changed resp.

The first mistake – plt. 13, Trace of the Hare, Th. 175 – caused by the misleading text and marks of the original preparatory drawing in Munich (DJFM 5186) in which the marks

but then are erroneously attributed to the two  scents  in question:

So then also in the proof here

“(Hind Leg)” on hard ground instead of correctly “(Fore Leg)” … and with the following scent “(Fore Leg)” instead of “(Hind Leg)”. This oversight described just so by Helbing (Cat. XXXIV [1900], Works of J. E. and M. E. Ridinger, 356).

The comparison of letters and especially the background hatching show that

only  Ridinger  himself

could have done this.

not identical either with the later correction in the plate nor with a inscription on another one of the set and in such a way without any possibility they could be snipped off from such ones at a later time.

Apart from that without the two asterisks marking the soft ground as appearing again in the final state.

On plate 17, Trace of the Badger, Th. 179, – again following the drawing in Munich, DJM 5195 – in the proof here the two scents are designated as

In the final state then in each case

Helbing lists also this sheet as well as proof as final impression, too, but without mention of any letter variant.

Since for the two mentioned copies of the younger period letter deviations have not been mentioned neither for hare or badger nor any other plates the proofs seem to differ by themselves

with  the  ones  here  being  the  first  and  foremost  states.

Temporarily for the present not to be ranged in the title deviating from the von Gutmann copy (Schwarz) as another one, too, sold here recently – both with the coppers numbered in print – and the further one reproduced at the beginning of the splendidly designed facsimile edition of the Munich set of the preparatory drawings as well by smaller commas as also another ornamental end of the red double line beneath the vignette. At least in contrast to the Munich one the title here additionally with a type area higher by 1.8 cm. Let the both first ones assume an early state in virtue of the coppers for the title here, too, appears this uncertainly by the “(Preliminary Report)” on the back covered up here as said, since as well headline as also opening initial are printed in black contrary to the reproduction in the facsimile. Thienemann knows titles “with complete black letter and not decorated initials” (p. 294) listed by Weigel under B as second state. Whether this connects with the preliminary report, too, must be left undecided here.

In their valuation the isolated proofs of the Representation of the Fair Game stand far beyond the copies of the final state as less rarer on the market. So in 1900 Helbing offered in his 1554-number Ridinger catalog those eight proofs at prices  triple  so high than the final states. And that copy from the 70s, too, had been priced with DM 30,000  twice  so  high  than another numbered in the plates offered simultaneously, both wide margined.

The  systematic  comparison  of  the  numerals

of the written numbering here with dates especially of the drawings to the set here as with dates and figures on other drawings of different working periods of Ridinger documented in the records here leads to a side by side of quite clear, strong characteristic numerals, which are confronted by others not demonstrably so as has been shown neatly in issue 18 of the publications of the ridinger gallery niemeyer.

So this comparison could just give rise to a character analysis of Ridinger to someone interested in graphology. In doing so it would have to be taken into account also that in the grandiose 1723 key drawing “Alexander the Great on the Hyphasis” the vanity symbolism of bursting columns and splintered trunks already were present to the young artist, leading him finally shortly before his death to the Self Portrait with Death in the Studio described by Thienemann XXI, 4 and now in Berlin (Catalog Darmstadt, color ills. 9).

Based on the comparison of the numerals alone a quota of error of about 30% could be thinkable in respect of single figures in contrast to a general impression given by words or even sentences. The coming along of further signs – from the 19 of the single sheet here up to the engraved covering labels – broaches however this remaining uncertainty so conclusively that here an

original  Ridinger  numbering

is believed.

Plates 1-20 in their upper nearly three quarters show the animals in typical situations in grandiose environment and below

their  traces  in  original  size

excepting the reduced ones of lion + tiger (recte “maybe a jaguar”, Thienemann) as “not to be found in our forests”. The others apply to bear – stag – hind – boar – fellow-deer – wolf – roebuck – lynx – ibex – chamois – hare – fox – beaver – otter – badger – wildcat – marten + weasel – polecat + squirrel.

In Helbing’s catalog (XXXIV, 1408) after all a reference generally fallen in oblivion again to a copy of proofs, recte presumely a waste copy, of the Paradise suite whose reverse sheets – presumely with the exception of three sheets – were printed with text to the set here, one of which inscribed with “Joh. Elias Ridinger, Augsburg A. C. 1738”. The set known only with the 1740 title would be proven consequently not only as appeared in serial parts as besides the rule at Ridinger, but above all as accompanied by detailed text. Although probable that in this connection there never had been more than such printing proofs, printed therefore also only one-sided and used then for other start printings, so in the Ridinger œuvre uniques fascinating the collectors surprise always again.

But as already discussed this together supports the belief, that after completion of the work Ridinger made out the drawback of a numbering as such, maybe, because now the bookbinders could or would not get along guided by the only one text sheet.

Obviously for better presentation the Whatman-sheet for title + plt. 1 parted. The title itself complete, but severely trimmed and with trifle scratch (3.5 cm) in the middle of the vignette and a marginal tear of 4.5 cm settled by mounting and uniformly slightly browned as plt. 23, too. The wonderfully wide-margined Whatman-sheets with prevailingly only small marginal repairs, otherwise fine and absolutely fresh. Only the last one with plts. 22 + 23 with more tears.

Plate 7 – fallow-deer – with printing spot touching the subtitle, plate 10 with little black spot below the chest of the lynx. Here and there slightly foxed in the margins. Otherwise still some plate dirt on plate 1, the lion. Therefore by itself

of  serene  splendor

and thus for the  adequate  collector  the  elitist  piece of its own.

That, however, grants the collection only in company with the

its, indeed, unprecedented unique.

That  the  master  has  worked  it  himself  alone

shall be mentioned expressly. Just as documented by inscription. – Sheltered from tarnishing by fine application of varnish the plate is printable generally in the ordinary course of its use during the times. But it is offered and sold as a work of art and an object of collecting. Thus without prejudice to its final printing quality.

Thematically beyond

moreover  with  a  further  dot  over  the  i

as stated here for the first time. For no less man than the

“ Blue  Rider ”  Franz  Marc

the marten-weasel-sheet served together with two further Ridinger coppers as inspiration for his painting “Playing Weasels” of 1911, Hoberg-Janssen 144 with ills.

In such a way known with Ridinger as source till now only Marc’s woodcut “Riding School after Ridinger” of 1913 (Lankheit 839) as detail interpretation of the mounted rider as background figure of the third sheet (Th. 608) of the 1722 Riding School annotated by literature with

(Christian von Holst, Franz Marc – Pferde, 2003, pp. 166 ff. inside of [‚… the Kick of my Horses‘]).

His oil “Playing Weasels” following the lithograph of the same name of 1909/10 reveals the knowledge of quite several Ridinger coppers from entirely different sets. Marc shows two weasels, of which the one, bowed over a bough, looks down upon the other sitting in raised attitude. The trees besides of an eccentricity as in this ostensible density used by him only still on the two “Acts under Trees”, H.-J. 143, of the same year. For the thematic primer detonation stands Ridinger’s small sized sheet “The Weasels”, Th. 479, of 1740 as sheet 89 of the set “Design of Several Animals”. Also here two playing ones, but both on the earth in completely different surroundings. The latter Marc splitted up. And took the attitude of the two animals from sheet 86 of the set, the two pine martens Th. 476 (here per 7,332 as well as together with the pendant of the two beech martens Th. 475 per 15,007). The young one of them, bowing over a low bough like at Marc and looking at the dam standing on the hind paws against the trunk, baiting with a captured bird. The same situation shows “Playing Squirrels” as sheet 88 (Th. 478), only with the difference of a further one on the tree, too, but keeping a little aloof and not involved in the play. But the bizarre trees – and as such ones Sälzle characterized they expressly in the edition of the preparatory drawings for the suite here – as rather rarer for Ridinger, too, he took over from sheet 19, Th. 181, of the set with the marten on the tree at the same attitude and a weasel on the ground shown, however, neutrally.

Thus Marc formulated his “Playing Weasels” just so by means of divers Ridinger copies as the latter on his part his “The Amusement of the Shepherds” after Watteau, Th.-Stillfried 1397, composed from four models of the French. That finally the trees as more typical for Ridinger was not unfamiliar to Marc, too, shows the right group of trees of his forest picture “The Würm near Pipping” from 1902/03, H.-J. 15 with ills. By the way a lithograph of the same name has been preceded to the oil of his “Playing Weasels” in 1909/10.

But also the par force scenery on the watercolor “Ried Castle” worked one year later – Holst, ills. 11, p. 29 – stands for a further example of Marc’s occupation with Ridinger,

which  in  this  plurality  has  not  been  seen  till  now .

 

Résumé

The “manual” suite as one of the “most famous sets of the artist” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Oct. 14, 1995) in

waiting on with spectacular new discoveries and here then additionally truffled with its

original  printing-plate

to plate 1 of the suite, the lion in his majesty. And thematically enlarged with an additional broadside by

an  artistic  bridging  from  18^th  to  the  20^th  centuries .

Presented this all then adequately as

both gilt-stamped of 23.5 carat.  Shortly , the  worldwide  unrepeatable

for most elitist placement. As a provocatively inaccessibly sovereign eye-catcher, the envy of your friends, reflecting the noblesse of your home.

Offer no. 28,888  /  price on request

„ … Die (vom Schwiegervater geerbten Par force-Jagd) Ridinger … habe ich in meinem Arbeitszimmer bestens neben einem Gobelin plaziert und möchte sie nicht mehr verkaufen. Besten Dank und ein Kompliment an Ihr Haus, dass sie nach so vielen Jahren noch an mich gedacht haben “

(Herr K.-A. H., 2. Februar 2004)

further activities :
49 years address for fine arts & books: lüder h. niemeyer
his pictured morals charm the mind: william hogarth
master of iconographic depth: johann elias ridinger
an artist dynasty: georg philipp I to johann moritz rugendas
recommended links