A New Grad[u]ally Encreasing Compass-map Of The Coming In Of The Channel, Or The Heads; Containing A Part Of The Coast Of Boulonnois; Extending From Callis To Dannes, As Also In England, From The South Forland To Rye With Their Shallownesses And Depths By N. De Vries. (this Is An Exact Transcription Of The Title In English. The Same Title Is Also In Dutch And French).
Traces of old fold otherwise the condition is very good with attractive colours and quality paper.
£500.00
Publisher
G. Van Keulen, Amsterdam. n.d. but,
Date
c.1695.
Item Description
Large hand-coloured copper-engraved sea chart, 20.5 x 23.5 inches.
Notes
An attractive and decorative sea chart of the English Channel centred on the Varne sand banks, with the coast of Kent from South Foreland to Rye and the French coast from Calais to just south of Boulogne. Navigational features on the land are marked - churches, castles and lighthouses etc. The sand banks are marked complete with sea depths, safe anchorage etc., rhumb lines and compass rose and an attractive cartouche. A rare chart produced by the successful Van Keulen firm. Their charts are scarce in England as the English were frequently at war with the Dutch during the heyday of their production.
JOHANNES VAN KEULEN 1654-1711 - GERARD VAN KEULEN 1678-c.1727
The Dutch produced a remarkable number of enterprising and prolific map and chart makers but not even the Blaeu and Jansson establishments could rival the vigour of the van Keulen family whose business was founded in 1680 and continued under their name until 1823
The firm was founded by Johannes van Keulen who was registered as a bookseller in Amsterdam in 1678. In 1680 he published the first part of his Zee Atlas which, over the years, was expanded to 5 volumes and continued in one form or another until 1734. More ambitious and with a far longer and more complicated life was his book of sea charts, the Zee-Fakkel, published in 1681-82
Although the firm was founded by Johannes van Keulen, he was primarily a publisher; it was his son, Gerard, a talented engraver and mathematician, Hydrographer to the East India Company, who became the mainspring of the business, which not only published charts but also books on every aspect of geography, navigation and nautical matters. The title of the map is in lower case script and for some reason the engraver inverted the 'u' in Gradually so that it reads Gradnally
[Stock No. 16434]
