Lot 556
China - Blaeu, Willem & Johannes
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography
Auction: 11 October 2017 at 11:00 BST
Description
China Veteribus Sinarum Regio nunc Incolis Tame dicta. Amsterdam, [c.1638], 41 x 49.5cm to plate line, hand-coloured engraved map, framed and glazed
Footnote
Note: A clean finely coloured example of Blaeu's important first map of China. The map was published by Willhelm Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638) who founded one of Europe's greatest cartographic publishing firms in Amsterdam in 1599. Willem's son, Johannes Blaeu, went on to publish his Atlas Sinensis in the 11 volume Atlas Major (1662). China is outlined in yellow and bounded by the Great Wall in the north. Korea is still depicted as an island and the outline of Japan is based on Ortelius's map of Japan of 1590.
Decorated with a beautiful title cartouche, two Dutch merchant ships and two Chinese junks. The lower cartouche is dedicated to Theodore Bas, a former director of the Dutch East India Company VOC