Blaeu Virginia and Florida Map – Decorative Early America Chart, 1642

Blaeu Brazil Map, Novus Brasiliae Typus, Antique Hand-Colored Map 1642 A highly important and visually striking map of Brazil, titled Novus Brasiliae Typus, published by Willem and ...

Blaeu Map of Portugal – Portugallia et Algarbia, Antique Iberia Map, 1642 A highly decorative and historically important map of Portugal, titled Portugallia et Algarbia quae olim Lu...

A striking, rare map with a cartouche dedicated to Gabriel Bengtsson Oxenstierna. Published by J. Bleau, Amsterdam, 1662. Contemporary coloring.

Blaeu Biscay Map, Basque Country Bilbao Cantabria Spain, c.1642 Description: A finely engraved and highly decorative map of northern Spain, depicting the historic regions of Biscay,...

Antique Map - Gallia is an antique map realized in 1650 by Johannes Janssonius (1588-1664). The Map is Hand-colored etching, with coeval watercoloring. Good conditions with slight ...

Mare Pacificum is an antique map realized in 1650 by Johannes Janssonius (1588-1664). The Map is Hand-colored etching, with coeval watercolorang. Good conditions with slight foxing...

This is a 17th century hand-colored map entitled "Insula Gaditana Isla de Cadiz" from Johannes (Joan) Blaeu's Atlas Maior, published in Amsterdam in 1662. The map provides an excellent plan of Cadiz Island on the southwest coast of Spain, with its harbor, fortifications, agricultural fields and several surrounding salt processing areas. Numerous sailing ships of various sizes are included in and around the harbor and bay, including five large sailing ships, as well as twenty-four smaller ships. There is a small compass rose overlying the bay. The bridge to the mainland from the island is shown on the right. There is an extremely ornate and colorful title cartouche in the lower left, with its mythological figures reminiscent of Raphael’s Galatea fresco at the Villa Farnesina in Rome. The vibrant colors are vividly preserved. The master colorist tried to emulate a painting by using various tones to create a three-dimensional effect.
 Blaeu's name is present in the plate in the lower right. Blaeu stated in his description of Cadiz: “The main wealth of the islanders consists of salt, which they harvest, and
 the tuna fisheries.” 
 This 17th century hand-colored map is framed in an ornate, partially textured bronze-colored wood frame and glazed with UV protected conservation glass. There is a vertical center fold, as issued. There is a faint crease in the lower right and faint color offset on the left from the right side of the map, resulting from having been in an atlas for hundreds of years. Small foci of paint are present in the upper portion of the left margin and in the left corner margin. The map is otherwise in very good condition. Due in large part to their powerful trade empire, the Dutch became known for cartography in the seventeenth century. This period is considered the Golden Age of Dutch cartography. Their publishing houses produced the highest quality work in Europe, particularly those maps and charts of foreign lands, and Dutch map-making set the bar for cartographic accuracy and artistry into the early-eighteenth century. Some of the most well-known cartographers worked in Amsterdam during this period. Perhaps the most famous of these was the Blaeu family. Willem Janszoon Blaeu, set up shop in Amsterdam. His son, Johannes (Joan), succeeded him upon his death in 1638, continuing in his father’s position as Hydrographer to the Dutch East India Company and selling maps to the public. The Blaeu map presses, located near Amsterdam’s Dam Square...

A rare and important 17th Century Italian Engraving of Willem Blaeu's Great Wall Map of America, "America quarta pars orbis quam plerunq, nuvum orbem apellitant primo detecta est ann...