Cornelis Galle I’s engraving, “Boar Hunt with Shotguns”, c1596, after Jan van der Straet

Cornelis Galle I (1576–1650)

“Boar Hunt with Shotguns” (aka “Aprorum Caedes”; “Slaughter of Wild Boars”), c1596, after the design by Jan van der Straet (aka Joannes Stradanus; Ioannes Stradanus) (1523–1605), plate 25 from the series of 104 plates, “Venationes Ferarum, Avium, Piscium”, published in Antwerp by Philips Galle (aka Philippe Galle; Philippus Gallaeus) (1537–1612).

Engraving on fine laid paper trimmed with a small margin around the platemark, backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 20.7 x 28.6 cm; (plate) 20 x 26.6 cm; (image borderline) 18.7 x 26.1 cm.

Inscribed in plate within the image borderline: (lower right on stone) “Ioan. Stradanus inuent/ Corn. Galle Sculp.”; (lower right on tree) “Phls Galle/ excud.”

Numbered and lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “25.”; (centre in two columns of two lines of Latin verse) “Explosis Apros vno simul impete stlopis;/ Corpora dum turpi in coeno setosa volutant;//Opprimere, et duris occidere glandibus, ars est:/ Hastis venari cum sit res plena pericli.” ([transl.] Shooting with the muskets in a single shot, while their bristling bodies roll in the dirty mud, oppressing and killing the boars with pitiless bullets is an art, a great danger to hunt them with spears.)

New Hollstein Dutch 481 (Marjolein Leesberg [comp.] 2008, “Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450-1700: Cranach–Drusse”, vol. 6, Amsterdam, Sound and Vision, cat. no. 481).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print (from a different state): “Boar Hunt with Shotguns; in the foreground, to the right, four [huntsmen], concealed by a row of trees, aim their shotguns at sleeping wild boar in the left middle ground, unaware of the danger; two dead boar lie at the huntsmen's feet in the left foreground” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1957-0413-49).

Condition: a richly inked and near faultless impression with small margins laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. Beyond a restored tear in the margin at centre, the sheet is in an excellent condition with no holes, folds, abrasions, significant stains or foxing.

I am selling this magnificent engraving showing one of the earliest images of the recently developed multi-shot, breech-loading shotgun, the “Haile Shotte peics”, being used for hunting boars rather than birds, for the total cost of AU$320 (currently US$213.89/EUR193.53/GBP170.36 at the time of posting this listing) including 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 remarkable and possibly historically important engraving (in terms of the use of the Haille Shotte peics for hunting boars), 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