The Royal Württemberg stud, the first Arabian stud in Europe

Kuntz, Rudolf. Abbildungen Königlich Württembergischer Gestütts Pferde von orientalischen Racen.

$70,018.00

First and only edition. Commissioned by the Board of the Württemberg Stud, the first Arabian stud in Europe, this almost unobtainable series of large format plates shows the Stud's full-blooded Arabian horses with decorative oriental backgrounds. The plates constitute extremely early examples of chalk lithographs (listed individually by Winkler, Frühzeit der dt. Lithographie, 180, 57). Kuntz (1797-1848) was known for his "excellent depictions of horses" (cf. Thieme/B.); throughout his brief career he studied thoroughbreds in England, Hungary, and Paris as well as in Germany. In 1832 he became Painter to the Court of Karlsruhe, Baden; he suffered a stroke in 1846 and died in the newly-founded Illenau mental hospital.

Of the utmost rarity, no copy of the complete series with all three issues as present here traceable in auction records.