Still lifes

Pair of etchings, circa 1720, published and probably engraved by Joseph Friedrich Leopold.

Beautiful proofs, impressed on contemporary laid paper and finely original hand-coloring (with more recent color retouching), trimmed to copperplate or thin margins, minimal restorations visible on verso, otherwise in very good condition.

Joseph Friedrich Leopold (also: Josef, Iosef; Latinized as Josephus Fridericus Leopoldus; * 1668 in Marktredwitz; † February 6, 1727 in Augsburg) was a German copperplate engraver and music engraver, as well as publisher and art and music dealer, based "auf dem Obst Marck" (1703) 'in der Kohlergasse.

Leopold arrived in Augsburg in 1689. He had been married since April 21, 1698, to Eleonora Magdalena Steudner, daughter of Augsburg copperplate engraver and art publisher Philipp Steudner. He was the father of engraver and publisher Johann Christian Leopold. Beginning in 1695 Leopold made a lasting name for himself as an engraver. He founded a sheet music publishing house, which his son soon expanded to become the most important in Augsburg in the first half of the 18th century. The importance of the company's founder, however, lies mainly in the early "dissemination of copied or imitated foreign ornamental forms," which he published in the form of pattern books, thus fostering the flowering of illustrated prints in Germany.

Leopold collaborated with various artists and craftsmen, such as Johann Andreas Thelott, Albrecht Biller, and Balduin Drentwett. In 1719 Leopold took over the Augsburg publishing house from Johann Ulrich Krauß; in 1723 he began a series of partially colored city views; in the period between 1710 and 1750, the publishing family published 221 prints and city views.

The German Book and Type Museum of the German National Library lists Leopold among the colored paper manufacturers in its holdings under the heading Paper History Collections. According to Haemmerle, he produced "Turkish paper" and other colored papers; for this reason he had "disputes about copying with Jakob Johann Crespi. In 1726 he received an imperial privilege for his metallized papers. Haemmerle considered his brocaded papers, "especially those with chinoiserie," among the best products of their kind.

Bibliografia

Angelika Marsch in J.R.Paas (ed.), 'Augsburg, die Bilderfabrik Europas', Augsburg 2001, pp.131-52; A. Haemmerle: Evangelisches Totenregister zur Kunst- und Handwerksgeschichte Augsburgs. 1928, S. 28.