Rare-Antique Master Print-3 SWISS LANDSKNECHTEN-SOLDIERS-Hopfer-Schön-c.1520

Medium: Etching on iron plate on hand laid (verge) paper. Watermark: coat of arms with 3 double circles.

Sheet size: 30.1 x 21.3 cm (11.85 x 8.39 inch). Image size: 28.5 x 19.9 cm. (11.22 x 7.83 inch).

Condition: very good, given age. Printers crease at top middle. Some remains of paper tape on rear from attachment. General age-related toning and/or occasional minor defects from handling. Please study scan carefully.

3 SWISS LANDSKNECHTEN-SOLDIERS | EXPO-GERMAN

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Hopfers signed the majority of their prints with a device resembling a fir-cone, the emblem of Augsburg. Many of their iron plates were reprinted at least twice: 230 plates were reissued, with numbers added, in the seventeenth century by David Funck (1642-1709) at Nuremberg, part of ‘Oparae Hopferianae’ and in 1802 ninety-two plates were published by C.Wilhelm Silberburg at Frankfurt (British Museum, inv. nos. 1940,0810.20(1/92)), part of ‘Opera Hopferiana’. The existence of certain numbered impressions on good sixteenth-century paper has also been noted (see T. Falk in Hollstein, p. 5). The paper on this impression appears to be 16th.c.

Reference: Bartsch 64; Hollstein 72 I (of III).

Provenance: Collection marks: AB (Andreas Boerner, c. 1860; Lugt 68), vN in double circle (K.F.F. von Nagler, 1770-1846: Lugt 2529), Kupferstichsammlung der Königl. Museen (Lugt 1606), Tilgungs Stempel K.K.C. (Staatliche Museen; Lugt 2398).

Biography engraver: Daniel Hopfer (1471-1536) was the son of the painter Bartholomäus Hopfer of Kaufbeuren in Swabia, Daniel became a citizen of Augsburg in 1493 and is recorded as a master painter in the same year. Worked as an armourer in Augsburg. He was the earliest artist to adapt the practice of etching on iron to printmaking and to make a significant profession out of it. He produced 145 etchings and his sons, Hieronymus (c.1500-63) and Lambert (active c. 1525-50), continued the family reputation as etchers for a generation in Augsburg and Nuremberg. Daniel also designed a few woodcuts, chiefly ornamental borders for book illustrations (Hollstein, 146-155). In 1524 the Emperor Charles V conferred on Hopfer a coat of arms for his “true accomplishments in the service of the Emperor and Empire” (Eyssen, p. 37). He was an active supporter of the Reformation. Source: British Museum.