Deutsch
The Ibex
imperial synonym for outstanding power
since the age of Augustus
here then adequately presented in
“ Original Copper-Printing-Plates
… crowning Keystone(s) of a Collection ”
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Ibex is startled by a Lynx’s Cunning … / The Bad Cunning Lynx receives its Deserts … Pendants. Copper-printing-plates in reverse by Martin Elias Ridinger (1730 Augsburg 1780). Inscribed: Ridinger sculps., otherwise in German as before and below. 34.3-35.5 x 25.2 cm.
The optically excellently preserved
original printing–plate–pendants
in the reddish golden brilliance
of their at least 229 years old copper
to pair XX/XXI (etching + engraving, Thienemann + Schwarz 363/64) of the 46-sheet set “Special Events and Incidents at the Hunt” as, so in 1928 Schwerdt III, 140, “the rarest set of Ridinger’s sporting line engravings” mainly worked after his father’s designs from 1752/53 (so Schwarz on basis of the dates of the drawings for the set) mostly by twos and concluded posthumously in 1779. At its dissolution in 1958 the comprehensive Ridinger collection of the counts of Faber-Castell contained just three sheet of this set, while in Coppenrath’s inventory 13 were missing (catalogue 1889, 1546 + 1890, 1956), in 1900 three at Helbing’s (cat. XXXIV, Ridinger, 1554 nos.) and one each Schwerdt and Baron Gutmann’s second (?) copy within the Pompadour volumes of the Marjoribank Folios sold here.
And now even one of their printing-plate pairs as unrepeatably precious, worldwide unique collector’s items here traced back far beyond Thieme-Becker (vol. XXVIII, 1933, p. 308) + Thienemann (1856, p. XXIII) seamlessly directly to the master’s estate itself. For already in general
“ Preserved original 18th century printing-plates
are of great rarity”
(Stefan Morét in Ridinger Catalogue Darmstadt, 1999, pp. 62 f. See also the plates there I.13, I.8 + I.11, colour ills. 6 + b/w ills. pp. 63 f.). – And especially on Ridinger’s :
“ Of the high technical and qualitative standard of the works of Ridinger and his sons collaborating in the workshop especially as engravers the (only very partially) preserved printing-plates bear witness still today. ”
In the same sense then already before Bernadette Schöller in “[The Cologne Graphic Market at the Time of Václav Hollar]” within [Václav Hollar – The Cologne Years] ed. by Werner Schäfke, Cologne 1992, p. 19:
“ The copper-plates
which on the basis of both their material value
and the working times invested therein , too ,
enjoyed a far higher esteem
than , e.g., a preparatory drawing handled only too often disrespectfully … ”
As then elsewhere, too: “The Nuremberg publisher Frauenholz was so taken with this work that he acquired the plate from Reinhart (1761-1847) for a considerable sum” (Teeuwisse III [2007], 29).
And quite concretely Cornelis Koeman in Atlantes Neerlandici II (1969), pp. 138 + 345:
“ One of the most dramatic events in the early history of commercial cartography in Amsterdam was the sale of Jodocus Hondius, Jr.’s copper-plates to Willem Jansz. Blaeu in 1629, the year of his death. At least 34 plates, from which Jodocus II had printed single-sheet maps for his own benefit, passed into the hands of his great competitor. Immediately after that, his brother, Henricus, and Joannes Janssonius (brother-in-law of the latter) ordered the engraving of identical plates. ”
Whereby the communicated process of this order documents
the whole value of copper-printing-plates
once more :
The placing to the engravers Evert Symontsz. Hamersvelt and Salomon Rogiers by notarial act laying down the completion of now 36 plates within 18 months, worked “accurately and finely, yes, finer and better and not less in quality than the maps given to the engravers. The principals will pay to the undertakers 100 carolus guilders for each engraved plate and will also pay the copper itself and the polishing. Five hundred guilders will be paid in advance in order to afford the undertakers to pay the labourers.” Regarding the inclusion of independent temporary engravers as obviously usage the principals “will during the said period not be allowed to employ any of the following (seven) engravers … or any one else who should be employed by the undertakers, with excemption of (two ones). If Salomon Rogiers (obviously specialized letter engraver) came to die within the aforesaid period, it will be up to Evert Symontsz to decide if he wants to stop or to continue with the work, by lack of a good letter engraver. If Evert Symontsz came to die (prematurely) … Salomon Rogiers is forced to complete the task, provided that more time will be available for him.”
As we visualize these informative details the plates inevitably gain in additional intimacy. Telling of pressures and time-need if co-players did an unexpcted clever move which could become commercially threatening, whereby term of delivery and considered number of engravers illustrate abruptly the advantage of the competition. And just the pure labor value of such a plate pointed out with already above by Bernadette Schöller, here multiplied by a degree of accuracy of a map transfer with its, not at least and specially, see above, infinite local inscriptions! As said, truly dramatic.
Yet in the case here, remember, regarding nevertheless always only reproduction plates. What an artistic and therewith timeless factor determines the value then only there, where the genius of the artist himself draws the lines, leads the needle, strengthening the intensity of the etching there and taking it back here, imposing the own vision upon the copper! Here + today then in such a manner Ridinger plates!
And so it was said then here also on occasion of the reappearance of parts of the so-called Thieme-Becker block of Ridinger’s printing-plates “One of the most sensational discoveries in art history … Ridinger’s original printing- (sic!!!) plates”.
At which not only after realization here the consequence of the eldest, Martin Elias, as the etcher/engraver of the plate here being up for the Ridinger œuvre is much larger than that of an engaged co-worker only. Already at an age of thirty he just acted as a spiritus rector behind the backstage ensuring that sets were completed as just also the monumental 101-sheet one of the “Wondrous Stags” to which the plate here belongs, too. Of the last 27 works Martin Elias conveyed to the printing-plates alone 21! Without him the plate offered to you here would not be in existence!
And as Wolf Stubbe (Joh. El. Ridinger, Hbg./Bln. 1966, pp. 16 f. + pl. 34), going in medias res, celebrates Th. 722, The Wild Bison 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.
Without their Roman numbering accordingly to the denumbering on occasion of the new impressions made by Engelbrecht about 1824 (Thienemann: “when they are missing, this points to later impressions”). – Each with 4-line subtext in German :
“ The ibex is startled by a lynx’s cunning, By which it pursued it here secretly; Alone the quickness that is quite inherent to it, frees and rescues it from threatening menace.
“ The bad cunning lynx receives its deserts for its outrage; it feels pain and death, The ibex has its revenge at its enemy with disdain; Its rage is settled and that moans in agony. ”
Marvellous here first of all
the thrilling salto mortale flight of the ibex ,
instructive then its getting even with the foe :
“at a rock (it presses) with its strong horns the lynx’s neck asunder.”
With this only seemingly natural outer state of affairs the matter would rest with anyone. Not so with Ridinger whom in 1966 Wolf Stubbe called a mediating didacticer, “the man of intention , the planner and designer, the creator out of artistic intelligence”, who then also not purely accidental is the originator of a 20-sheet fable set, rather wished to have understood this “the more so as for the instruction of the youth”. And so the ibex-lynx happening contains in the core the quite clear message, not to give up chicking out, on the contrary
being alive to the own power
and thus deciding the challenge for oneself .
What then finally counts for the measurement of strength on the hunt, too. For the hunt “on such noble , desired game may for sure be a great delight indeed , but only for the hunter, however, whose sinews and other built are just about as good as the ibex …
( It is ) regarded by connoisseurs as the most stately , most noble game”
Since Roman age, when Emperor Augustus established him imperially as his sign of the zodiac - whose original name coming from the land between Euphrates and Tigris was goat-fish up to the days of the old Greeks - , the ibex counted in conformity with that for the power politician as distinctly elitist symbol of sovereign power. Him it should have been meant when in 1493 the imperial bibliophile Maximilian I lost his way in the Martins’ Wall at Zierl in Tyrol. And
“ in 1603 the portrait of (emperor) Rudolf II famous for his artistic Royal Household in an engraving by Egidius Sadeler (Hollstein 323) after … Hans von Aachen is spread. Conceptionally following allegorical sovereign portraits the half length picture is embedded in an architecture and thematically created richly in allusion. The devine right is called up by the inscription ‘A Domino’ on the parapet, additionally on the one side it is referred to by analogy to Jupiter as father of the gods upper right and on the other hand on the left
with the ibex ,
the sign of the zodiac of emperor Augustus adapted by Rudolf II ,
lining underneath the outstanding power position
whose territorial dimensions are defined in the oval type ribbon. By this derivation the empire is documented as a universal reality over the times ”
(Joachim Jacoby, Hans von Aachen 1552-1615, 2000, p. 52 along with ills. 30).
This priority claim accompanies the image of those ones born in the sign of the Capricorn to whom Rudolf II, born as Cancer, just not belonged to. However,
“ Already (in Ridinger’s time) … largely exterminated … in the Alps; merely in Italy … some few animals had survived (in Piedmont thanks to the strict preservation law of 1821 and later on the protecting hand of king Victor Emanuel II) and became the root of all colonies existing today … ”
(Bruno Hespeler in Blüchel, Die Jagd, vol. II, p. 134).
This then nearly extermination corresponds with his occurence in Ridinger’s œuvre. Thematically as materially
the ibex forms pearls within the haystack of the stags of the master .
Adequately then these worldwide unique copper-plate-pendants here .
Offered to you with the recommendation for timeless-elegantly frameless hanging to be granted the finest respective light reflections.
Sheltered from tarnishing by fine application of varnish
the plates are printable generally in the ordinary course of their use during the times. But they are offered and sold as works of art and objects of collecting. Thus without prejudice to their final printing quality. Shortly ,
a thinkably enjoying , worldwide unique absolutum .
Proposed to you with the recommendation of a timeless-elegantly frameless hanging (fittings included) for that you will experience the reflection of the respective light to the fullest.
And what said private Ridinger plate purchasers generally ?
“ You have surprised me ”,
so a retired presiding judge purchasing two of these cimelies
of which he had impressions been done
(see Ridinger catalogue Darmstadt, 1999, I.10 + I.12).
“ I would like to thank you ,
the plates are more beautiful than I had expected ,
I take both , no question ”,
so an entrepreneur who in the meantime bought three further ones.
“ … and I know the plate will only gain in value ”,
so an American purchaser.
And in 2001 the Augsburg Art Collections presented the acquired 12-plate set for the Paradise suite
within the exposition “KUNSTREICH” as the important acquisitions of the last decade
(catalogue KUNSTREICH no. 102, pp. 198-201).
Finally to complement all facts above by a comparison of the valuations once and now as possible on the basis of the said map-plates proves to be both interesting and informative:
In 1630 Hondius-Janssonius paid said 100 guilders (in the Northern Netherlands of the 17th/18th centuries 20 stuivers came on one guilder and 16 pennies on a stuiver) for the engraving of each single map-plate additionally to the copper itself and its polishing. Compared with this in 1670 the publisher’s price for Joan Blaeu’s 12 and 11-volume resp. Atlas Maior from the 1660s with its about 600 (sic!) maps – Le Grande Atlas as the most exciting atlas event of all times published in a total edition of just under 1000 copies – made in its standard edition in decorated vellum and colored in outline only just 450 and 430 resp. guilders! Nevertheless inevitably meant only “for a small circle of customers … (for the) requirement of representation of rich merchants and shipowners”. For a normal daily earnings made in the thought span of time 1 guilder on the flat country of the west, in the south + east only between ½ + 1 guilder. For specialists a little more, for farm hands somewhat less. And in the cities about the double.
For the early 1970s Traudl Seifert, then keeper of the map division of the Bavarian State Library, figured for the Atlas Maior in the standard edition a shop price of about 150 thousand German marks. On a 1984 auction sale an 11-volume copy estimated irrespectively of 5 missing maps at 250 thousand was paid with totally 347700 DM. A rise to 80760% from the publishing on 300 years ago! Which on their part already date back two decades!
Analogously to this the 100 guilders costs for engraving per each plate in 1630 would have been multiplied about just the 807fold to 80760 DM and 41292 EUR resp. per 1984, one DM put roughly on a par with a guilder, freely granting this to be so. Yet, surely, but only, requiring alone skilled ability.
(Basing on Koeman, as above; Traudl Seifert, Der Atlas major des Joan Blaeu, in Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel, Frankfort edition of February 25, 1975; and statistic sources.)
And so the most elitist frequently still is the most economy-priced one .
Offer no. 14,979 / price on request
– along with said frameless hanging equipment –