Gallery Highlights

COLOM, J. A. - La Flamboyante Colomne des Pays-Bas. Autrement dict les XVII Provinces. Chez Jacob Colom. Published in: Amsterdam, 1636 In 4to oblong. Rare atlas of the Low Countries, by Jacob Colom, in an early – first- French edition. The atlas includes 42 maps of the Low Countries and three genealogical plates. The plates on genealogy show over 100 portraits of the nobility of Holland and Flanders.

GUICCIARDINI, L. - Descrittione di M. Lodovico Guicciardini patritio Fiorentino, di tutti i Paesi Bassi,… (Antwerp, Plantin, 1581) The book block 23.0 x 31.0 cm. / 9.1 x 12.2 inches. Uncoloured.  Folio. In contemp. vellum binding, red mottled edges.  A very fine copy.

VALK, G. - Nova totius geographica telluris projectio. . . (Amsterdam, ca. 1711) Size of bookblock : 54.0 x 33.0 cm. / 21.3 x 13.0 inches. The maps are in attractive strong original colours. Folio, in contemp. red half-sheepskin binding. Atlas is composed of an allegorical title and 24 double-page maps in fine original coloring.

BÜNTING, H. - Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae. Das ist: Ein Reisebuch, Uber die gantze heilige Schrifft, in zwey Bücher geteilet... Zuvor gemehret mit einem Büchlein De monetis et mensuris... Insonderheit aber mit einer feinen nützlichen Erklerung des Buches Josua... (Magdenburg, 1587).

CHATELAIN, H. - Méthode Pour Etudier La Geographie . . . & un Catalogue des Cartes Geographiques, des Relations, Voyages, & Descriptions les plus necessaires pour la Geographie. Amsterdam: Chez Zacharie Châtelain, 1732 - 1739. 7 volumes. Contemporary full mottled Dutch calf. Spine with seven raised bands, compartments rich gilt with floral patterns, and; boards with large gilt, embossed vignette showing Atlas carrying a sphere surrounded by a Louis XIV floral pattern, and two intricate gilt borders; one with spheres at each corner; gilt dentelles.

Oranda Fune no zu [= Depiction of a Dutch Ship].  Japan, Kansei 4, 2nd month, 9th day, 30 March? 1792. Size: 32.3 x 44.5 inches./ 82 x 113 cm. A very large and extremely detailed Japanese drawing on rice paper of a Dutch ship at the artificial island Deshima, the VOC's outpost in Nagasaki harbor. In the drawing, the ship itself measures about 63 cm from figurehead to stern, giving a scale of about 1:47.
The Japanese texts do not identify the ship but note that it was at Deshima on Meiwa 3, 10th month, 18th day, which is in October or November 1766, probably 21 October.

Military manuscript map of the end of Yangzi River across Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang areas, with 3 red seals of the "Ever-Victorious Army".

China, ca 1862. 1019 x 1600mm. Manuscript map in brown, red, and green ink and wash color. More than a thousand houses with a red flag are named in Chinese, military camps, mountains, forests, and battlefields are drawn in. Many cities and village names are translated in pinyin and written either in brown ink or lead pencil. In the lower-left corner an inset map of the area covering Songjiang District with Shanghai (265x355mm.).

The first sea-atlas (in the real sense of the word) printed in the Netherlands. JANSSONIUS, J. - Novus Atlas Absolutissimus... Die Wasser-Welt, oder See-Atlas. Published in Amsterdam, Janssonius heirs, 1657 [after 1664]

39 Copper-engraved charts in very fine original hand-colouring. Original publisher's vellum.

A largely extended example of Volume IX (Sea-Atlas) of the "Novus Atlas Absolutissimus". German text, letterpress title on slip within the hand-colored engraved architectural border, heightened in gilt, 39 maps are finely colored by a contemporary hand. With 6 additional maps by Visscher

This map is a great example of Japanese world maps representing Buddhist cosmology with real-world cartography. It is the earliest one and - therefore - the prototype for Buddhist world maps.
The map centered on 'Jambu-Dvipa', the mythological heart of Buddhist cosmography where Buddha was born in Northern India with the sacred lake of Anavatapta, and the four sacred rivers Ganges, Oxus, Indus, and Tarim flowing from it, the map extending from Ceylon to Siberia, and from Japan to the British Isles 'Country of the Western Woman', with Europe as a group of islands, Africa figured as a small island, and a land bridge connecting China with an unnamed continent to the East [America?], numerous place names, texts placed at lower left and right corners including a list of Sutras and Chinese histories, title in a banner at upper margin.

"This inestimable book, a treasure of all the learning respecting the East and West Indies and the navigations thither... [was held] in the highest esteem for nearly a century, and was given to each ship sailing to India, as a log-book [ie., sailing manual].
Hence the many editions, which is also the cause why fine copies, especially with all the plates and maps, are so very rare.
A large part of the book is occupied by translations of original Spanish and Portuguese documents on geography, ethnography, statistics, navigations, etc., and in these respects, it is of the highest importance and authority. The description of America occupies...the third part"