With 8 Undescribed First States
The only Colored First Edition of
Ridinger’s Colored Animal Kingdom
in a Roundabout Absolute Exceptional Offer
Ridinger, Martin Elias and Johann Jacob (ed.). Representations des Animaux selon leur grande varieté et leurs belle couleurs suivant des desseins (sic!) originels / (The Animal Kingdom represented in its Great Variety and in its Fine Colors from Original Drawings). 2 pts. in 1 vol. (Augsburg, author’s ed., 1754 – c. 1773.) In-2 (41 x 29 cm). 20 pp. (French text), 24 pp. (German), 1 l. index; 17 pp. (French), 20 pp. (German), 1 l. index. 2 etched title engravings in ruddle, woodcut border, 5 large figurative vignettes (1 engraved, 4 in woodcut) and
127 mostly glazed
colored copper plates
after and predominantly by Johann Elias Ridinger (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767) himself, else Martin Elias, 4 of which printed in green, in upright + 3 oblong formats of c. 30.4-31.7 x 19.6-21.5 and 21-21.1 x 31-31.6 cm resp. Contemp. marbled calf on 6 ribs with red title plate “Histoire naturelle des Quadru(pedes)”, gilt floral back + standing edges as well as marbled fly-leaves + red edges.
Provenance
Anonymous
his catalog clipping , not related to the following ,
on the back of the front marble fly-leaf
Dr. Alfred Ritter von Pfeiffer
(1858 – 1913)
his library mark printed in gold
with the monogram “AP below Crown”
(Lugt 2067a)
&
written number “1736”
as well as ex-libris covered by the following
on the front inner cover
His sale Leipsic May 1914, pt. II, no. 92 :
“ Splendid copy …
In this completeness and preservation
of utmost rarity ”
Originating from Wurttemberg banker’s family and encumbered on his father’s side (paintings),
paintings, watercolors, drawings & miniatures were sold in first auction
together with the Coll. Count Hügel already in November 1913 in Vienna.
In the May sales
library & print collection together with original sketchbooks followed,
the prints led by “precious series by Dürer and Rembrandt”,
Ridinger himself represented by “belle série” (Lugt) .
Grande Dame
Mack (enclosed) ills. 6
with source Institut für Stadtgeschichte (ISF), Frankfort/Main
May von Weinberg
Royal
also in her pretensions
b. Villers Forbes from the House of the Earl of Granard
Plymouth 1866 – Frankfort/Main 1937
Literature
Revised new edition Frankfort/Main 2000
– enclosed here –
Frankfort benefactress with burial chapel
at the steeple of the church of the Mother of Good Counsel in Niederrad
Wife of the together with brother Arthur
legendary Cassella + I.G. Farben man
Carl von Weinberg ,
1919 + 1924 member of the German delegation
at the peace and Dawes Plan negotiations at Versailles
Mounted over Ritter von Pfeiffer’s ex-libris
of a winged angel with the Book of Life
in front of Vatican ambience with St. Peter’s , Ponte Sant’Angelo + Castel Sant’Angelo ,
opened at May’s page along with device
Dvm vivam et vltra
Below that the coats of arms of both families below joint crown :
On the left the shield of the Weinberg’s with the three cornflower blooms,
on the right that of the Forbes’ with three bear heads with halter-straps.
The complete coat of arms of the House of Forbes showing above the shield
a bear going ahead to the left
and below the shield the device
BEAR AND FORBEAR.
illustrated analogously by Th. 1079
The complete coat of arms of the House of Weinberg showing above the shield
a crowned open tourney helmet below a raising horse
– the latter in harmony with the Palatinate-Hesse ancestors just
as the intensively lived own passion of the Weinberg brothers
with and about stud-farm + stable Waldfried
up to the Arthur von Weinberg Race in Niederrad established gratefully in 1946 –
and is surrounded by the device
FORTITER IN RE / SUAVITER IN MODO
Literature
Jan Hendrik Niemeyer
Johann Elias Ridinger in the Kingdom of the Colored Animals
Creation and Completion of a Suite
Revised new edition 2010
– publications by the ridinger gallery niemeyer 22 –
Thienemann 974-1102 + pp. 298 ff.; Schwarz 974-1102 (vol. I, pl. XXX + XXXI + ills. p. 140); Weigel, Art Cat., sect. XXVIII, Ridinger appendix 63a (torso of only 120 ll., correspondingly “Complete copies are almost untraceable”, 1857); Coppenrath Coll. II 1599 ( “Extremely rare absolutely complete copy”, 1889); Reich auf Biehla 206 ( “Extremely rare work”, 1 l. missing, some ll. slightly damaged, 1894); Hamminger Coll. 1834 (“Excellently preserved copy”, 1895) + 1835 (1 l. missing) as well as three torsos (1836 ff.); Helbing, Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger (cat. XXXIV, 1900), 1490 (“Complete extremely rare”, pt. II not quite faultless) as well as 1491 f. (torsos); Schwerdt III, 145 f. (the copy D. C. Marjoribanks); Counts Faber-Castell 66b (1958; boards loose); Hippologica Coll. Sarasin 117 (1999); Nissen, ZBI, 3408; Ebert 19109; Graesse VI, 119-20; Brunet IV, 1299; Rümann, Illustr. Buch, 950; Fürstenberg, Frz. Buch, 128.
Not in the rich Silesian R. coll. 1885 at Boerner XXXIX with just 16 ll. of the suite (lot 1955); R. coll. at Wawra (1890; besides 234 drawings 600 prints).
The etchings on the high-quality Dutch paper
– “ for it is for this the most decent and best ”,
so Ridinger in the introduction to the Main Colors of the Horses – with watermark Strasbourg fleur-de-lis above arms (Heawood 73) as well as partly below (Heawood 64), partly as secondary mark, C & I Honig. Further secondary mark IV (Jean Villedary). Beside now and then also only typographically C & I Honig similar to Heawood 3346 + 3348. The text on common laid paper with isolated figurative (shield below crown?) and typographic watermarks.
First complete edition .
A second one, printed from the now numbered plates, shortened at top, furnished with new captions and partly also otherwise modified, and left black and white, was published 1824/25. – The plates bound between the French text and facing this optically almost throughout; the plates to be assigned to the respective recto thus bound left, those of the verso right, however. The German text together with the index sheets bound after each of both parts. As in such a manner not the rule
in remarkably thoughtful convenient binding
which might give rise to the presumption that present sequence including the text bound in-between up to the respective plates presented en face might
correspond with the ideas of the Ridingers
and an interim binding provided by them at any rate .
The title etching of pt. I with completely taken out vertical fold and generally soiled. 3 plates (quite) feebly evenly browned and besides 2 small worm-holes in the white margin and field resp. 6 plates with practically imperceptible small to tiny tear backed acid-freely in the lower part of the outer margin. The 4 plates surrounding pages 13-16 of the 2nd part with slight text copy. The text particularly in the upper and lateral margin partially slightly to a little foxed, but only in the case of five of the explanation sheets bound in-between also affecting the immediate preceding and following plate resp. from almost not at all to faint. The binding corresponding to its age particularly at the edges somewhat rubbed. The standing edges of both the lower corners and a small missing spot at the top spine-end restored quite unsuspiciously, neutralizing by the latter also the 3.5 cm ensuing tear of just the leather at the frontcover joint. The latter there also with regard to the 1.5 cm torn leather there below ( ditto: not the joint itself ! ). The minimal stainedness of the backcover of patina character. A 2-sheet front fly-leaf of 1816 Whatman sheets according to the finding of the restorer an addition by later hand. – Margins at the side c. 2.5-3.5, above 1-3, below, however, 5.5-7.5 cm wide. – In such a manner then the plate work printed on heavy laid paper as a roundabout
impressively beautiful copy
of great freshness and shiningly saturated coloring .
One of the only three
originally colored works of Ridinger’s
(the usual hints in the trade to two base on the unawareness of the existence of copies of the 2nd edition of the 10-sheet set of the Monkeys intended for coloring, Th. 541-550, which in this state neither Thienemann, Weigel, Schwarz, Faber-Castell etc. ever set eyes upon, though Thienemann was acquainted with yet and was traded here 1972 most beautifully)
of all together utmost rarity
from the master’s late work and by this – supposedly with exception of the first, black edition of the monkeys – published only partly or not anymore resp. by himself. These editions are of ultimate beauty and
belong to the finest of the fine
of the illuminated animal books of all times .
Their number of copies cannot be assumed small enough. And only seven years after publication of present posthumous complete edition of the Animal Kingdom with Martin Elias the one of the two sons more familiar with the œuvre passed away.
And after the plates had passed into Engelbrecht’s art shop 1821 the latest they were, Thienemann’s comments on this or not, mutilated beyond repair to create under a likewise altered title in the following years a
new edition actually yet never coming to the stage of coloring
to meet the supposed requests of the time. A fate practically all the other then still about 800 plates were spared and what – up to in contrast also to the colored Main Colors of the Horses – did its share to secure
the colored original edition of the Animal Kingdom
for all times its special position within the œuvre :
“ The (Animal Kingdom) presumably is not found completely anywhere anymore, almost not known to many admires and collectors of Ridinger’s art prints, and only by the hardest efforts we succeeded to receive this precious collection fairly completely – three outstanding ones finally yet per appendix pp. 298 ff. – from quite different places ”
(Thienemann).
Present copy furthermore with
16-17 plates to be classified
mostly as first , otherwise early states of the first edition ,
7 of which first & 1-2 further ones hitherto not described .
Résumé
Drafted , started and pushed far ahead by the father – 41 of his clear-cut signatures with the explicit publisher’s/editor’s mark excudit stand opposite only 5 corresponding ones by the son and 1 indifferent , the larger half in this respect remaining without evidence –
“ to deliver a small contribution to natural history and a more exact insight and understanding of the same, at least with intent to the animal kingdom. For even though in this so much already has been done and researched, so there still is a lot to be made good … ”
and completed by the sons with the adequate proviso “ since our intent here actually is just this , to furnish the connoisseur with
Th. 1099: “successful representation (of the monachus) worked from nature”good illustrations of the animals ,
but not to write a natural history of these. Thus without more ado we pass on to the description of the plates themselves ”
(page 15 on occasion of the stag), so they still follow just in the latter their father, too, in his aforesaid intent to instruct also textually as briefly and precisely as pleasantly to read. With the result of a
Colored Animal Kingdom of ultimate beauty .
Presented in a copy having no equal itself , raised in addition by equal , with May von Weinberg even singularly ambience rich provenances . Its supposedly earliest, for the time being not decipherable here, documented by a catalog clipping mounted verso of the front fly-leaf – see illustration at the beginning – :
“ … It is this the most wanted and rarest work of Ridinger’s in first edition with wide margins , besides of perfect freshness and best preservation ,
a complete copy in such preservation
supposedly has never ever been put on the market .
Thienemann , who never laid eyes upon a complete copy , writes on this (pag. 199) : … ”
Whereas already above in particular also its highly interesting binding was discussed, yet the binding itself described only plainly. So on the latter it shall be noted here in addition that the appearance of the Animal Kingdom
in contemporary full-leather binding
as
crème de la crème
inside as outside
as here
is a trouvaille not to be appreciated highly enough .
Wherever we encounter a copy , in the old inventories , on the market of the last decades , the rule is contemporary half leather at most , mostly just 19th century and later leather. Not excluded Schwerdt’s Marjoribanks copy in its green morocco – of the 19th century. Thus not for nothing Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, later Lord T. (1820-1894), united his rich Ridingeriana collection as far as possible in historical bindings, just those legendary Marjoribanks Folios in their red French morocco of the 18th century, as traded here, too, in the ’90s.
Quite obviously it was the overall impression of present copy which led to the aforesaid résumé of the catalog clipping from supposedly the first decades after Thienemann. An impression which happened again here on presentation and had the dealer say to himself out of his almost 60 years of encounters with precious objects – what a copy ! Impressive . Roundabout .
Offer no. 15,615 / price on application
