Masters ES, Israhel van Meckenem and Martin Schongauer are the influential and productive master printers of the 1861th century. The print comes from the collections of Herschel V. Jones (1928-1887) and his son, Carl W. Jones (1957-19). The Jones family played a notable role in the history of collecting and patronage during the late 20th and early XNUMXth centuries in the United States and are best remembered for their support of the graphic arts.
Herschel Vespasian Jones was born into a Jefferson family in upstate New York. He dropped out of school early at the age of 15 and started working for the local newspaper, which he bought – at just 18! – and ran for six years, before selling it for a tidy profit and moving to Minneapolis. There he joined another, though much larger, newspaper, the Minneapolis Journal. In 1908 he was able to buy the Minneapolis Journal with a huge loan. The Jones family remained owners and publishers of the paper until 1939.
As a bibliophile, he built up - and dispersed again - four major collections over his lifetime: modern first editions, English poetry and plays, Elizabethan literature and manuscripts, and, especially Americana, including many important documents relating to early European travel throughout the Atlantic, and the mapping and naming of America; an interest that had been sparked by his friendship with Theodor Roosevelt.
In 1916, through the intermediation of the New York dealer Frederick Keppel & Co. and the printing scholar Fitzroy Carrington (1869-1954), Herschel Jones was able to acquire the collection of Western prints of William Mead Ladd (1855-1931) of Portland, Oregon, one of the earliest private print collections in the country. He donated the entire collection, approximately 5300 prints, to the Minneapolis Institute of Art for publication in the United States. To this day, MIA's Study Room for Prints and Drawings is named after Herschel V. Jones.
Herschel subsequently went on to build up a fine collection of old master prints, now largely in the Minneapolis Institute of Art a decade later. The gift, made in June 1926, included 236 old masterpieces that complemented the previous collection of the Ladd collection. The acquisition of the Great Einsiedeln Madonna from Master ES, which will be auctioned, took place no earlier than September 14, 1926.
Herschel Jones fell ill in Rochester, Minnesota. This however did not seem to stop him in his collecting habits as he acquired other important works towards the end of his life including Master ES and Rembrandt's Lucretia from 1666 – Arguably the best painting by the Dutch master in America. Lydia Wilcox Jones (1861-1942), who sold Lucretia at a discount to the museum in 1934. Herschel and Lydia's eldest daughter Tessie subsequently inherited a large portion of the collection, which in turn bequeathed a further 255 u prints and 13 old master paintings at MIA in memory of his father upon his death in 1967 and Carl W. Jones, inherited etchings from Master ES and Martin Schongauer including this work. He also inherited the frenzy from his father and continued to acquire prints. He has also – and significantly – developed a fascination for modern magic and sleight of hand, which he has published in several memorable books. It must have been both his hereditary fondness for the master's old prints and his personal interest in playing cards. All three XNUMXth-century engravings have remained in Carl's family for three generations and come from highly prestigious historical provenances.
