De nieuwe groote lichtende zee-fakkel... Vergadert door wylen Claas Jansz. Voogt

by KEULEN, Gerard Hulst van (d.1801)

Price: $120,000.00
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Amsterdam: [Gerard Hulst van Keulen], 1782-83. Volumes I and II, folio. (21 5/8 x 13 1/4 inches). Pp. (2), 1-97, (1 blank), (1)-24 (pp. 17-20 omitted at pagination), (2); (2), 1-78, 1-29, (1 blank). (Lacks engraved frontispiece.) 146 engraved sea-charts (116 double-page, 17 folding), 9 engraved coastal profiles (7 double-page), 54pp. incorporating woodcut coastal profiles. (3 charts shaved close, just touching the image area). Contemporary vellum over pasteboard, cloth ties, all within two modern black morocco-backed boxes, spines in seven compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second and fourth compartments, the others with elaborate overall repeat design built up from small tools. Fine unsophisticated copies of the first two volumes from this important edition of Van Keulen's maritime atlas. The look and condition of these two volumes is consistent with them having been part of a set supplied to a merchant ship: the plain serviceable binding, the toning and the general signs of having been close to the elements rather than shut away in a library. It is not perhaps too fanciful to suggest that these volumes spent their 'formative' years aboard a ship that ranged widely in search of trade. These are the first two volumes of a series that was extended to six. The present volumes, parts I and II, chart and describe the western coasts of Europe in fascinating detail: from the Baltic, Denmark, the Netherlands (unsurprisingly, covered with great accuracy), England, Scotland, Ireland, and then south to the Atlantic coasts of Spain, Portugal and France. The fine charts are complemented by the excellent text and a fine series of coastal profiles. Part III of the series contained charts of the Mediterranean, part IV the West Indies, part V Africa and Brazil and part VI the East Indies. The charts, besides covering a wide geographical area, were also produced over a wide span in time and in many ways encapsulate a cartographical golden age. All the maps in the present volumes were printed especially for this work, but they were produced from printing plates that probably range in date from 1681 (when the first part of the Zee-Fakkel was published), through until 1779 or so when Gerard Hulst van Keulen assumed control of his families publishing mainstay. The Van Keulen family were chart and instrument makers, and publishers of nautical textbooks, books on sea law, shipbuilding, almanacs and more. Founded by Joannes van Keulen (c.1654-1715), the firm remained in business for over 200 years. At the time of the publication of the present works, Gerard Hulst van Keulen had taken control of the firm (in 1779) and had begun to institute the changes that were to revive the firms fortunes. He remained in charge until his death in 1801. The business was continued by his widow until 1810 when Gerard's grandson took over. He was the last van Keulen to work in the business, which he sold in 1823. Koeman IV, Keu 51A and cf. Keu 76 & 77

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