EUR 15,000.00
A fine scrapbook album of original artwork and early prints with a focus on horses and the art of hunting dating from the early Renaissance, privately compiled by the German entrepreneur Hans Dedi (1918-2016). The very first of the many fine drawings is a pencil, ink and wash hunting scene, dated 1759 (p. 1): the original design for the title of the monumental Baroque plan showing the "Parc d'Eisenstatt" by the Esterházys' engineer and architect Nicolaus Jacoby, signed by the artist (the engraving was subsequently prepared by Martin Tyroff). Most of Jacoby's work for the Eisenstadt palace is kept in the palace archives, making this a rare item. It is followed by an appealing, unsigned ink hunting scene, ca. 1700 (p. 5) and a pencil and wash greyhound, signed by the Dutch-Roman painter Pieter De Laer, ca. 1640 (p. 6). Also, three ink and wash scenes (horses, hunter, hare) on one sheet (p. 7): patterns for metalwork by a German master, ca. 1570, signed "Hanns Lederschmid [changed soon after to: Hanns Jakob Vogel] ist dieses ghüs [i.e. Gehäuse, frame]" (from the collection of Eugène Rodrigues, 1853-1928, his stamp: Lugt 897; sold as no. 76 in the catalogue of F. Muller, Amsterdam, 12/13 July 1921). Pages 8-9 comprise a total of eight watercolour deer and shooting scenes on 2 sheets, ca. 1800; p. 10 shows a cut out ink and wash design for a gun wheellock with a hunting scene. An ink and wash scene of a bear at bay after Jost Amman, ca. 1600, adorns p. 22; p. 31 bears a gouache on vellum (large boar in rocky landscape), attributed to Johann Christoph Dietzsch, ca. 1760; p. 32 has a a scene of hunter and dog (cut out pencil and wash on vellum, decoration for a snuff or pill box); p. 33 shows a pen and ink wash of trapping birds. On page 34 is a large Persian watercolour, ca. 1460/80, depicting the Persian ruler Bahram Gur shooting a lion and a wild ass with a single arrow (from a MS of Nezami's "Haft Peykar"); p. 47 shows an ink and wash of a stag set upon by hounds, by Joseph Georg Winter (with later attribution on verso). - The prints are consistently of a similarly high quality. They include the complete publication of Johann Elias Ridinger's set of canines, "Neues Thier Reis-Büchl. Erster Theil, allerley Art Hunde vorstellend" (Augsburg, 1728) comprising the title and 11 plates (ZBI 3409; Th. 725-736). Other engravings worthy of mention include two woodcut riding scenes from Theuerdank, 1517 (p. 2-3, including an early proof without text on verso); an engraved boar hunting scene by Augustin Hirschvogel, 1569 version (p. 4); four engraved hunting scenes after Bartholomaeus van Lochom, ca. 1640 (pp. 14-17); two woodcut hunting scenes after Jost Amman (p. 18); two engraved hunting scenes by Johann Siebmacher, ca. 1600 (p. 23); a woodcut of King Henry the Fowler with a falcon, 1621, representing the relief in Regensburg's Dollingersaal (p. 24); six engraved hunting scenes by Aubry after Matthäus Merian (pp. 25-30); a hunting scene (Hercules and the Ceryneian Hind, Bartsch 95, Holstein S 50) by Heinrich Aldegrever, 1550 (p. 33); 12 engraved hunting scenes by Claude Savary and B. Gaultier, from the collection of William A. Baillie-Grohman (1851-1921) with his stamp, Lugt 370 (pp. 35-46); a stag by Wenceslaus Hollar, 1649, after a drawing by Albrecht Dürer from 1518 (p. 61); Hollar's large hunting still life after Peter Boel, from the collection of the counts of Fries with Franz Rechberger's signature (1802) on verso (p. 62); a hunter with rifle and hounds, by Johann Jakob Biedermann, ca. 1820, with stamp of the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung im Museum zu Basel, Lugt 222a (p. 63); and a stag hunt scene by Pierre Firens, ca. 1620 (p. 64), with several others. - Binding a little rubbed in places. A fine anthology, personally compiled over several decades through private purchases in the trade and at auction, frequently drawing on material formerly in notable 18th, 19th and earlier 20th century collections, by the Swiss-born German merchant and entrepreneur Hans Dedi, chairman of the "Quelle" mail order concern and the Schickedanz business group, with his bookplate on the front pastedown and his handwritten annotations and acquisition notes on loosely inserted sheets. {BN#48369}
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