VISSCHER, Nicolaes, II (1649-1702) [and Elizabeth VISSCHER (fl.1702-1726)]

Estimate value
£ 18 000 – 25 000
Auction dateClassic
10.07.2024 10:30UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
ID 1249732
Lot 112 | VISSCHER, Nicolaes, II (1649-1702) [and Elizabeth VISSCHER (fl.1702-1726)]
VISSCHER, Nicolaes, II (1649-1702) [and Elizabeth VISSCHER (fl.1702-1726)]
Atlas minor sive geographia compendiosa qua orbis terrarum per paucas attamen novissimas tabulas ostenditura. Amsterdam: Nicolaes Visscher, [c. 1696-1706].
A handsome composite atlas, with a larger than usual complement of maps, all finely coloured throughout by a contemporary hand. Compiled and sold by the Visscher family of art dealers and cartographers at the end of the 17th and early 18th centuries, the present atlas includes: double-hemisphere world map by Carel Allard; 120 European maps including the Low Countries (18), Scandinavia (5), France (19), Germany (31 - including a map of the Battle of Blenheim 13 August 1704), Eastern Europe (i.e., Russia, Poland, Prussia, Hungary and Greece, 10, including a map of Transylvania by Jaillot dated 1696), Austria and Switzerland (7) and Italy (11); 6 maps of the Middle East, 2 maps of Asia, 2 maps of Africa, and 6 maps of the Americas. 77 of the maps are by Nicolaes Visscher II; the remainder are by Frederick de Wit (35), Allard (10), Homann (2), Blaeu (3) and others. When Visscher died in 1702, his widow, Elizabeth, continued publishing composite atlases with this title, and was later responsible for the Atlas Maior under her own name, and a new type of atlas De Stoel des Oorlogs depicting the countries involved in the War of Succession. Visscher atlases of this scope, condition, and quality of colouring are rare: Koeman lists 30 atlases published by the Visscher family from 1634 to after 1708; of these, only 2 under this title (Vis 26 and 27) contain more maps than the present example. Shirley lists one Visscher atlas in the British Library under this title which is larger with 272 maps bound in 2 volumes (Maps C.39.f.9/1 and 2). Koeman III pp.165-172; Shirley BL T.VIS-3a.

Folio (530 x 330mm). Letterpress title, additional engraved decorative title, 137 double-page engraved maps, of which 12 folding, and 4 heraldic double-page plates, all coloured by a contemporary hand (all numbered in ink manuscript by a contemporary hand indicating map 128 lacking in the sequence, probably of Asia, the green pigments with show-through throughout, map 34 of Württemberg with 100mm tear along green pigment burn and with a few other neat repairs on verso along folds, a few others with neat repairs and occasional insignificant tears, mainly without loss, occasional faint scattered spotting). The maps are numbered in ink at upper right on versos. 1930s binding of red half morocco, spine with 5 raised bands, green morocco gilt lettering piece in second compartment, the other compartments tooled in gilt (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: ownership inscription dated Amsterdam, 24 October 1935, on preliminary leaf.
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