Original woodcut by Albrecht Altdorfer printed ca. 1513 in Germany. Noch abgleichen... A fine and clear impression of this rare woodcut. According to Franz Winzinger an impression between b and c (still before the loss of the borderline in the upper right corner.
Original woodcut by Albrecht Altdorfer printed ca. 1513 in Germany. Noch abgleichen... A fine and clear impression of this rare woodcut. According to Franz Winzinger an impression between b and c (still before the loss of the borderline in the upper right corner.
Original antique copper engraving. Engraved title by J. Leypold, printed dedication leaf, engraved portrait of Besler and his coat of arms. Dedicated to Joachim Ernest, Duke of Nuremberg, and signed Georg Gärtner, 1612. This very fine fascinating highly decorative flower bouquet was published in Nuremberg 1627 in a small book by Basilius Besler with the title: Icones sive: Repraesentatio viva, florum et herbarum. This work is of outstanding rarity and only two copies of the book where known so far (see Christies 2001 Sale 6503 Natural History Lot 6). The book is consisting this very fine, rare engraving by Georg Gärtner depicting a vase of flowers for the Markgraf of Ansbach, which is found in a few copies of the Hortus. Hainhofer sent a copy of the engraving to his patron in August 1612, calling it a tour de force of Gärtner's skill (Barker, p.15). The only other copy of the Icones known is at Darmstadt and consists of 93 plates; a third copy, formerly part of Christoph Jacob Trew's collection at Erlangen University Library, has been missing since at least 1961. The book,Icones Icones sive: Repraesentatio...' by Basilius Besler, was issued as a gratitude to those who had assisted him in preparing the "Hortus Eystettensis" but were not acknowledged in the original work in 1613. The,Icones...' included contributions from various individuals, including members of the medical college such as Joachim Camerarius and Ludwig Jungermann. Camerarius had provided advice to Bishop Johann Conrad on the garden before Besler's involvement. Jungermann seems to have had a significant role in the text's preparation, although there appears to have been some dissatisfaction with Besler's handling of the project, as evidenced by a letter from Jungermann to Caspar Hoffmann in 1614. One notable plate included in the,Icones' is the engraving by Georg Gärtner depicting a vase of flowers intended for the Markgraf of Ansbach. This engraving is also found in very few copies of the famous "Hortus Eystettensis". The engraving here in good condition and in a clear, quite strong impression, traces of old folds, some minor small old repairs or tears, but overall only marginal and hardly affecting the actual engraving.
Original woodcut, printed from four woodblocks on laid paper. 2nd state probaly around 1550 printed This is the so-called copy of the large calvary (Der große Berliner Kalvarienberg), a very rare and early woodcut, which is printed from four woodcut blocks. This much discussed large woodcut exists only in eight copies all in public institutions. The original version of it is only known in two copies: in Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett) and in London (British Library). With our example now eleven woodcuts of the large calvary are known. We have compared our copy with the example in the Berliner Kupferstichkabinett and learned that our example must be slightly earlier printed then the one in Berlin. This could be defined clearly by comparing the eruptions in the wood. But none of these 8 known copies do have as our copy an additional monogram: „HS" in the lower right side. The monogram is either cut into the woodblock or was stamped into that gap. This monogram in our woodcut not mentioned in any bibliography or descriptive text about the large calvary. It is looking very similar to the monograms, which Hans Schäufelein was using, who did his apprenticeship in Dürer's worksshop. There is also a „Hans Schwarz" known, the 2nd husband of Hans Schäufelein's widow. Many questions are still open on the authorship of the large calvary, maybe the work could also be attributed to Hans Schäufellein. The authorship and attribution to Albrecht Dürer and the dating of this woodcut is still uncertain, although the woodcut shows several Dürerian motifs, but many extraneous elements speak against an undivided authorship. The design of the woodcut can be dated to the time before Albrecht Dürer's first stay in Venice. Provenance: The woodcut was acquired in the mid 1980's and it was kept in a private collection. The woodcut was backed on thick paper. This was lately perfect removed and we discovered now an old collector's stamp on the reverse in the lower left corner. The laid paper does not show any watermark. We were also able to identify the collector's stamp and can thus close a small gap in the origin story of the woodcut. Lugt 1008 (H. FÜSSLI & Cie, oder FALKEISEN & HUBER.)
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