Deutsch
Reflecting the annual flights
on the Thuringia (Crane’s Field) – (Rhine-)Hesse – Route
BURGMANN HENNE KRANICH of DIRMSTEIN’S
strong House Kranichstein near Darmstadt
from the beginning accompanying
the line of the Hesse-Darmstadt Landgraves
Ridinger, Martin Elias (1730 Augsburg 1780). This Stag of 3 Antlers was hunted par force by His Princely Highness the Ruling Landgrave LOUIS VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt
in the Great Pheasantry near Cranichstein
(Crane’s Rock) Aug. 11, 1753, where the same set above a wall 12 shoe high and escaped, but was shot after the rutting season of the very same year at the border in high counts’ Erbach Schönberg area. Copper-printing-plate in reverse after Georg Adam Eger (Murrhardt 1727 – 1808). (1767/68.) Inscribed: G. A. Eger delineav. et pinxit. / M. El. Ridinger sculps. Aug. Vindel., otherwise in German as above. 37 x 24.9 cm.
With not just exact local architecture as generally only here and there with Ridinger, but even more before the scenery of hunting seat
KRANICHSTEIN
as one of the first of its views .
The building itself together important for the history of construction:
“ The construction of the castle in – here well visible – three wings is an early,
if not even the first example of this style ,
which later has been taken over at other castles, too ”
(Lohmann, Georg I. und die Anfänge von Jagdschloß Kranichstein, no year, p. 70, after Dehio, Handbuch der dt. Kunstdenkmäler, vol. Hesse, 1982, p. 518).
The optically excellently preserved
original printing-plate
to the famous stag of three antlers as sheet 97 (etching + engraving, Thienemann + Schwarz 339; Ridinger Catalogue Darmstadt, 1999, VI.10 with illustration on front cover + page 126; Siebert-Weitz, Ridinger, 1999, pp. 44 f. with ills.) of the “Representation of the Wondrous Stags and other Animals”
in the reddish golden brilliance
of its 240 years old copper
here traced back far beyond Thieme-Becker (vol. XXVIII, 1933, p. 308) seamlessly directly to the master’s estate itself. And therewith correcting Thienemann (1856) who declared the plates of the Wondrous as being deprived. But so a worldwide unique collector’s object of degrees, too. For
“ Preserved original 18th century printing-plates
are of great rarity”
(Stefan Morét in the 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. – The original numbering “97” restored again on occasion of a later 19th century edition after it had been changed for a separate set in the mid-twenties.
Already depicted in the hunting diary of Louis VIII the stag of 10 points (2 x 3, 1 x 4) poses
in front of the Kranichstein pool and the complex of the palace .
In regard of the latter one of its first depictions though. Since
“ Views of the hunting palace are handed down since the middle of the 18th century only, all from the time of landgrave Louis VIII who as passionate hunter kept court almost exclusively in Kranichstein, as his father Ernest Louis also did after … 1715. Kranichstein’s heyday falls under the regency of these princes ”
(Gisela Siebert, Kranichstein, 1969, page 14).
Yet even going visibly beyond this general documentary value as still
“ with all the buildings of its immediate environs
which had been removed at end of the (19th) century at the latest ”
(Wolfgang Weitz).
And taken from no lesser, though not preserved in Kranichstein (see, however, besides the trophy there, VI.10c of the Catalogue Darmstadt with illustration, Eger’s large portrait painting of the stag, VI.10a, and the drawn study of the head ascribed to Eger, VI.10b with ills.), design than that by of the court hunting painter who joined the court in 1748, and in whom the close connection to the Ridingers obviously originated, and due to the age preferably lasted with Martin Elias. Because 6 of the 12 plates of the “Wondrous” dedicated to Hesse-Darmstadt (10 of these to Louis VIII personally) plus Th. 356 + 385 as also referring to Louis and later taken over from the “Incidents” have been worked by Martin Elias, four of these after Eger. Beyond these after the latter the equestrian portrait of Louis from the “Princely Persons” and two further designs.
Just as Eger was
“the true painter of the par force hunt at Kranichstein …
Louis VIII must have esteemed (him) quite a lot, wished to have him as constant companion on the hunt and commissioned him with a court hunting uniform to put him on par with the hunters, also called him intimately ‘his old mate’ (and bestowed him with the title of a second court painter after the death of Joh. Chr. Fiedler in 1765) ”
(Siebert, op. cit., pages 63 + 109).
“Hunting landgrave” Louis VIII himself together with Hesse-Darmstadt generally not just form the by far largest individual block within the “Wondrous”, but in the whole graphic work at all. And in this context the plate here with its Kranichstein architecture is
the most dominant plate of the Hesse-Darmstadt-block ,
sheltered from tarnishing by fine application of varnish .
In the ordinary course of its use during the times still printable, but offered and sold as a work of art and an object of collecting. Thus without prejudice to its 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. 14,997 / price on request
– along with said frameless hanging equipment –