Reiterbuch, original. Lot n° 32

Rider's Book, original. Drawings to horseshoe figures and bridles, probably Westphalia, c. 1643. bound: Dedication leaf for Henrici Ledebaur with portrait at age 48, chalk, signed Johannes Neegel and dated 1643; 4 ll. Brush drawings in pigment colours, 34 ll. , including 5 fol. with 9 pen-and-ink drawings of horses in motion, horse-leaders, and dressage, 13 fol. with 40 large drawings of bits for breaking horses, 16 fol. vakat. 53:31 cm. Illustration to the high school of baroque horsemanship as a unique copy of the highest rank. It gives a notion of variety and artistic design in the equipment of the bridle, here mainly cheek-pieces in the connection of snaffle and reins, carefully detailed in function and ornamentation down to the last detail, plastically hatched by the artist's hand and reproduced approximately in original size. To transfer the work to Westphalia is justified in the person of the dedicatee, according to the age inscribed about 1595 born and thus with greatest probability to be recognized as son of the cathedral lord of Münster Heinrich Ledebaur (senior) who died in 1629, appointed chief heir on January 2, 1629. His preceding portrait by Johannes Neegel (also traceable as Negel into the 16th century) shows him as noble lord, set in a baroque frame. - The rider's book presents itself to us in remarkably good condition. The dedication leaf dust-marked and edge-broken, the following 4 ll. Paintings to hoof-beat figures browned only at margins and less edge-broken, the following drawings fresh and without noteworthy reduction, except for occasional off-set, one of the vacat pages touched. The vellum binding with gilt vignette á la pointilée with corner motifs on both covers, warped, scattered spotting, each with embossed border, its gilding partly faded. - Enclosed: a sheet of drawing to bridle, ink pen, recto/verso, 17th century, 32,5:19,5 cm.