Jacques Androuet du Cerceau’s etching & engraving, “Triple Furrow Plough with Rope Guides”, 1569

Jacques Androuet du Cerceau (c1520–1586), René Boyvin (1525–1598) and workshop printmakers

“Plate 33: Triple Furrow Plough with Rope Guides” (descriptive title only], 1569, a lifetime impression from the first edition (signified by the inscribed Latin text—later editions have the text on the verso of the preceding page [see https://archive.org/details/theatruminstrum00bessa/page/n76/mode/2up]) published in Jacques Besson (c1540–c1576) and François Béroalde de Verville’s (1556–1626), ”Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum Iacobi Bessoni Delphinatis, mathematici ingeniosissimi".

The Curator of the British Museum offers the following insights regarding the plates in this publication:

“… 'Theatrum Instrumentorum et machinarum', a treatise written by Jacques Besson, illustrated by 60 plates (engraved by various artists including Androuet du Cerceau), and allegedly firstly published in Orléans in 1569, though it is also referred as a book firstly published in 1578 in Lyon.

This very popular work was republished several times, in Geneva (1594 and 1626), in Spain (1602) and in Nuremberg (1595)” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1850-0612-93).  

Etching with engraving on laid paper trimmed with a small margin around the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 23 x 32.5 cm; (image borderline) 19.2 (right edge) x 31.9 cm.

Numbered and lettered in plate at upper edge: (left) “33”; (centre) “ARTIFICIVM NON VVLGARE TERRÆ MIRO COMPENDIO ARANDÆ, TRIPLICI VOMERE/ SIMVL, GEMINIS FVNRBVS AD PLAVSTRVM ARATRI ALLIGATIS, ET VEL SVPRA/ PLAVSTRVM, VEL IN FINIBVS ARVI SESE VIC1SSIM EXPLICANTIBVS, ET COM-/ PLICANTIBVS–“

Condition: a strong lifetime impression showing no sign of wear to the printing plate, trimmed with a small margin around the image borderline and laid onto a sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. The left edge is stained, otherwise, the sheet is in a good condition with no tears, holes, folds or abrasions.

I am selling this rare lifetime impression (c1569) showing a Renaissance period proposal by  Jacques Besson for ploughing three furrows simultaneously in a field guided by tensioned ropes, for the total cost of AU$253 (currently US$184.07/EUR157.03/GBP134.71 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this amazing illustration from what is arguably the first published compendium of machine inventions—and certainly the most influential! —please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

John Charles Robinson’s etching, “Nine Barrow Down, Isle of Purbeck”, 1872

Sir John Charles Robinson (1824–1913)

“Nine Barrow Down, Isle of Purbeck, looking towards St Alban's Head”, 1872, a view etched on location (“on the spot”) in reverse (see https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-218326). I understand that this scene is close to where the artist resided in his last years near Swanage, Dorset (see https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/41901).

Etching on cream laid paper (Arches watermark) with wide margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 29.5 x 43 cm; (plate) 11.3 x 26.1 cm; (image borderline) 10.8 x 25.7 cm.

Inscribed in plate: (above the image borderline at upper left) “NINE BARROW DOWN, I[S]LE OF PURBECK, LOOKING TOWARD[S] ST. ALBAN[S] HEAD.”; (within the image borderline at lower left corner) “1872”; (within the image borderline at lower right corner) “J.C. Robinson del. et sc.”

State iii (of iii) with “the lines of rain broken up by the burnisher” (state ii) and with the addition of the publication details (state iii).

Hind 12 iii/iii, PCQ Vol 8, No 3, 1921; illustrated page 306; H.167.

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Spreading landscape with rain falling from heavy clouds. 1872

Etching” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1925-0314-77).

The Annex Galleries offer the following information regarding this print:

“Sir John Charles Robinson, a close friend of Seymour Haden, was Superintendent of Collections at the South Kensington Museum and Surveyor of the Queen's pictures. He was a noted collector and curator and was a founder of the Fine Art Club and the Royal Society of Painter Etchers (with Francis Seymour Haden).

In his catalogue of Robinson's prints Arthur Hind notes, while discussing Robinson's use of atmosphere that in the etching Nine Barrow Down, ‘We can see that the scraper and burnisher have been used to break up the straight etched lines making the rays of light coming from the sun; thus giving the effect of moving light and the haziness of dawn.’

Nine Barrow Down is an elongated hill forming the northern ridge of the Purbeck Hills on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. The chalk down is part of the extensive Southern England Chalk Formation. The eastern end of the ridge, which carries the highest point, is also sometimes known as Godlingston Hill. The col of the railway cutting at Harman's Cross means that it has sufficient relative height that it qualifies as a ‘Marilyn’” (https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory/detail/17507/John-Charles-Robinson/Nine-Barrow-Down-Isle-of-Purbeck-Looking-Towards-St-Albans-Head).

Condition: a richly inked and near faultless impression with generously wide margins in near pristine condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, significant stains, foxing or signs of handling.

I am selling this magnificent etching—a true printmaker’s print! —executed on location showing rain being shed from heavy clouds in a vast panorama, for the total cost of AU$279 (currently US$202.60/EUR172.90/GBP148.09 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this sublime etching that takes my mind to Constable and Rembrandt, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Auguste Lepère’s drypoint, “In the Flooded Marsh: The Shepherd”, 1892 (pub. 1911)

Auguste Lepère (aka Louis Auguste Lepère) (1849–1918)

“In the Flooded Marsh: The Shepherd” (“Au Marais Inondé: Le Berger”), 1892 (pub. 1911?). This impression is from the recut plate of larger rectangular composition originally featuring a mother and child at left and signed in the plate at lower left and now signed in the plate at upper right; see https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.8469.html.

Drypoint (and etching?), with pale plate tone printed in a warm black ink on wove (Japan) paper with margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 30.4 x 22.6 cm; (plate/image) 17.9 x 17.2 cm.

Inscribed in plate: (upper right corner) “A^.Lepere.”

Texier-Bernier 394 (G M Texier-Bernier 1931 “Auguste Lepere: Peintre et Graveur”, Paris, cat. no. 394 [http://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/lepere_auguste_louis_aumaraisinondeleberger.htm].

See also the description of this print offered by the Yale University: https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/14240.

Condition: a richly inked and well-printed (near faultless) impression in near pristine condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing.

I am selling this superb drypoint showing a shepherd ferrying three sheep in a narrow boat across flooded marshlands, for the total cost of AU$237 (currently US$172.10/EUR146.87/GBP125.80 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this wonderful example of confident and loose/free drypoint drawing, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Pierre Gandon’s etching with engraving, “Portrait of the Poet Émile Verhaeren”, 1923

Pierre Gandon (1899–­1990)

“Portrait of the Poet Émile Verhaeren”, 1922, published in Paris by Georges Crès et Cie in “Les Forces Tumultueuses” in 1922.

Etching and engraving on fine ivory coloured wove paper with full margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 8.5 x 13.1 cm; (plate) 12.1 x 8.4 cm; (image borderline) 11.7 x 8 cm.

Inscribed in plate with the artist’s initials: (lower left corner) “GP”.

Condition: a superbly printed (faultless) impression with full margins as published. Beyond remnants of glue on the right edge the sheet is in near pristine condition with no tears, holes abrasions, creases, significant stains, foxing or signs of handling.

I am selling this exquisite etching with engraving showing the Gandon’s incredible skill that made him famous as a stamp designer and engraver for over 350 French stamps—see his first French stamp: http://frenchstampengravers.blogspot.com/2017/06/france-1941-reims-coat-of-arms.html—for the total cost of AU$213 (currently US$155.05/EUR132.09/GBP1113.09 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this small portrait masterpiece of Émile Adolphe Gustave Verhaeren (1855–1916), that (to my eyes) captures the spirit of this famous Belgium poet, described by Maria Van Rysselberghe—wife of the painter Théo Van Rysselberghe—as “a whirlwind with an indomitable character ... who provoked or overwhelmed everybody by his straightforward directness” (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Verhaeren), please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Leonhard Beck’s woodcut, “St. Amalberga III”, 1510, after Hans Burgkmair the Elder

Leonhard Beck (1475/80–1542)

“St. Amalberga III” (aka “St Amelia III”),1510, plate 9 from the series of woodcuts after the designs of Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531), “Images De Saints Et Saintes Issus De La Famille De L'Empereur Maximilien I. - En une Suite de cent dix neuf planches gravées en bois par differens graveurs d'après les dessins de Hans Burgmaier.” (see https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/book/images-de-saints-et-saintes-issus-de-la-famille-de-lempereur-maximilien-i), plate cut by the workshop of Nicolas Seemann ((fl.1510–1517), Hans Frank, Corneille Liefrink (1480–pre1545), Aléxis Lindt (fl. c1500–1525), Josse de Neghker (1485–c1544), Wolfgang Resch (c1480–c1537) and Hans Taberith (fl. c1510–1517) and Guilleaume Taberith, published in “Saints Connected with the House of Hapsburg: A General Account of the Ancestry of Emperor Maximilian I”.

This impression is from the later edition printed by Anna Alberti (fl.1794-1802) and published by Franz Xaver Stöckl (1763–1815) in Vienna in 1799 using the original woodblocks (see Virtuelles Kupferstichkabinett: http://www.virtuelles-kupferstichkabinett.de/de/detail-view). The Annex Galleries advises that this edition “was printed in 1799 for the family of the Emperor Maximilian I by Chez La Veuve Alberti, the widow of the printer Ignaz Alberti and published by F.X. Stockl, Marchand D'Estamps in Vienna” (https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory/detail/17678).

Woodcut on laid paper with wide margins.

Size: (sheet) 37 x 26.3 cm; (image borderline) 23.7 x 21cm.

Numbered above the image borderline: (right) “9”.

New Hollstein (Leonhard Beck) 10 (Guido Messling [comp.] 2007, “The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450–1700: Leonhard Beck”, Part I, Ouderkerk aan den Ijssel, Sound and Vision, p. 6, cat. no. 10).

For those unfamiliar with St. Amalbergna III, her biography is confusingly smudged with two earlier saints who share the same name (St Amalbergna) and the same birthday (July 10). What is known about St. Amalbergna III was that she was a virgin from the 12th century. What is certain regarding the portrayed saint in this woodcut, this is not the first St Amalberga who was married twice, comforts those with arm pains, bruises, and fever, and is usually shown standing on a giant sturgeon—a fish which the saint jumped upon to cross a river (see https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-amalberga-297).

Regarding the shield on the right featuring rampant lions, I may be very wrong, but to my eyes this particular lion seems to match those featured in the Coat of Arms of Flanders (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Flanders). For me, this makes sense, as the first St Amalberga was the sweetheart of Charlemagne, King of the Franks—until he broke her arm when making a rather forceful marriage proposal—and because she forgave him and made him a better man, she is revered in Belgium for comforting those with arm pains (see https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1300).

Condition: a richly inked and superbly printed impression with generously wide margins in near pristine condition with no tears, holes, abrasions, creases, significant stains, foxing or signs of handling.

I am selling this large and superb woodcut, printed from the original 1510 plate in the Franz Xaver Stöckl edition of 1799, for the total cost of AU$263 (currently US$190.80/EUR162.72/GBP139.73 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this startlingly fine woodcut showing St. Amalberga III as a nun praying to a holy vision of the crucifix on a sacred heart in what I assume to be Flanders with the Rampant Lion Coat of Arms of that region on the right, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.