Virgil Solis' woodcut: “David and Goliath”, 1560

Virgil Solis (1514–1562)

“David and Goliath” (1 Sam. 17) (TIB title), 1560 (and 1561–1565 with the strapwork border as shown here), from the two-part series of 218 woodcuts in woodcut borders by Vigil Solis, published in 1561 and 1562 by Sigmund Feierabend (1528–1590) in Frankfurt and printed by Johann Rasch (fl.1556–1562) and David Zöpfel (aka David Zephelius) (fl.c.1555–1563), as illustrations to “Biblische Figuren des Alten Testaments / Biblische Figuren des Neuwen Testaments”. The impression shown in TIB is from the 1565 edition.

Archive.org offers an online view of this print in its context in the 1562 edition of the publication: https://archive.org/details/VirgilSolisBible1562/page/n59/mode/2up.     

Regarding the publication in which these prints feature, the Curator of the British Museum advises: “The first edition was published in 1560. [This print with its strapwork frame features in] the second, enlarged edition, with 74 new images and woodcut borders from the 1561 Bible. The New Testament part is wrongly dated 1552 on the title-page” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1870-0625-191-411).

Jane S Peters in TIB (1987) advises that there are thirty-one different and interchangeable strapwork borders and not the twenty-four as Bartsch states (p. 283).

Woodcut on laid paper, printed with letterpress text verso, trimmed with a small margin around the strapwork borderline and backed with a support sheet providing wide margins.

Size: (sheet) 12.2 x 15.8 cm.

Inscribed within the inner image borderline with the artist's monogram at the lower-left corner: "VS".

TIB 19 (Part 1) 1.50 (Jane S Peters & Walter L Strauss [eds.] 1987, “The Illustrated Bartsch: German Masters of the Sixteenth Century”, vol. 19 [Part 1], p. 308, cat. no. 1.50 [316]).

Condition: a strong and well-printed early impression showing minimal wear to the printing plate, trimmed with a small margin around the strapwork borderline and laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper providing wide margins. The sheet is in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds or significant stains.

I am selling this superb impression of a remarkably fine Renaissance woodcut for a total cost of AU$237 (currently/approximately US$159.19/EUR147.54/GBP124.88 at the time of posting this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries. Note that payment is in Australian dollars (AU$237) as this is my currency.

If you are interested in purchasing this small but visually arresting woodcut, 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

Pieter van der Heyden’s engraving, “Representations of the Four Elements: Water”, 1566

Pieter van der Heyden (aka Pieter Verheijden; Pieter Verheyden; Petrus Ameringius; Petrus á Merica; Pietro Martini; Petrus Mericinus; Petrus Miricenys; Petrus Miricinus; Petrus Miriginus; Petrus Myricenis) (c1525–c1584)

“Representations of the Four Elements: Water” (aka “Voorstellingen van de vier elementen: water”), 1566, after Jacob Floris the Elder (1524–1581) from the series of 16 engravings (including the title plate), “Compartimentorum Quod vocant Multiplex Genus Lepidissimis Historiolis Poetarumque Fabellis Ornatum” ([Google Transl.] “What are the fables of poets call the authors give the family the most pleasant of a little history of their ornament compartments”), published by Hieronymus Cock (c1510–1570) in Antwerp in 1570.

Engraving on fine laid paper trimmed to the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 6.5 x 10 cm.

Lifetime/early impression (based on the engraving showing no sign of wear to the printing plate).

Orn Cat I 81.5 (Irene Margaretha de Groot 1988, “Ornamentprenten in het Rijksprentenkabinet”, Den Haag, Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum Staatsuitgeverij).

See also Peter Fuhring (1989), “Ornament Prints in Amsterdam”, Print Quarterly 6, p. 328.

The Rijksmuseum offers a description of this print:

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.409549.

Condition: faultless impression showing no sign of wear to the printing plate, trimmed along the image borderline and laid upon an archival support sheet of millennium quality washi paper. The sheet is in pristine condition for its considerable age (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains, foxing or signs of use).

I am selling this SMALL but important masterwork of early engraving commissioned by the great, Hieronymus Cock, as a part of a pattern book of ornament designs showing use of elaborate frames of strapwork, grotesques and putti surrounding allegorical scenes—here, Aquarius (the water bearer) pouring an endless supply of water from his urn—for the total cost of AU$291 (currently US$206/EUR175.66/GBP159.59 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) 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 interesting example of how designers of the 16^th century maintained design harmony, despite a clear joy in creative inventiveness—note how this design is crafted within the convention of colour codes so that dots in the strapwork would be read as gold—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