[Rarebooks] fa: JOHANN ELIAS RIDINGER - LEBEN UND WIRKEN [Life and Works] 1856 - Animal Engravings

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending MONDAY, July 6. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/oktqup4

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Georg Thienemann: Leben und Wirken des unvergleichlichen Thiermalers und Kupferstechers Johann Elias Ridinger, mit ausführlichen Verzeichniss seiner Kupferstiche, Schwarzkunstblätter und der von ihm hinterlassenen grossen Sammlung von Handzeichnungen. Leipzig: Rudolph Weigel, 1856. First edition; 8vo (22 cm), in full tree calf, spine decorated in gilt, marbled endpapers and page edges; xxxi, 300 pp.; half-title; engraved portrait frontispiece and 12 lithograph plates (complete).

A life of the German artist and engraver Johann Elias Ridinger (1698-1767), accompanied by an extensive catalogue of his works and illustrated with a portrait and twelve charming plates, several of them tinted. Ridinger was most famous for his drawings and engravings of animals, especially those associated with the hunt, (hounds, horses, stags, etc.), though the present work also includes a depiction of a  rhinoceros. His images remained immensely popular well into the nineteenth century and were often adapted for wall decorations, porcelain, and ceramics.

Modest wear and rubbing to the binding, light sunning to the top of the boards, front joint cracked but secure; offsetting to the title-page from the frontispiece; catalogue with small penciled checkmarks by a previous owner; occasional light spotting to the leaves, but generally very clean and fresh, firmly and handsomely bound. Front paste-down with the engraved monogram bookplate of Michael Arthur Bass, of Rangemore, 1st Baron Burton, philanthropist and scion of the Bass brewing empire.