Antique Maps Leen Helmink Antique map of the North Pole by Blaeu MAKER Blaeu TITLE Regiones sub Polo Arctico ATLAS Novus Atlas PLACE ISSUED Amsterdam FIRST EDITION 1638 THIS EDITION 1692 SIZE (hxw cms) 41.0 x 52.7 AREA SHOWN Arctic ENGRAVER Willem Blaeu TECHNIQUE Copper engraving VERSO blank PAGE NUMBER [none] SIGNATURE [none] COLOURING original colour SPECIFICS Small centrefold restorations, no loss of printed area. A reasonably good example of State II, in one of the scarce post-Blaeu versions without text on the back, issued in a composite atlas of around 1680 by Visscher, who had aqcuired this Blaeu plate. CONDITION perfect / excellent / very good / GOOD / acceptable / mediocre / poor REFERENCES Koeman Bl15/16A map 276. Burden 252 State 2. Goss p26. (Bibliography) BACKGROUND Willem Blaeu's map of the polar regions, a copy of the 1637 Janssonius map, which in turn draws upon the Hondius 1636 arctic map. "Willem Blaeu's map of the circumpolar regions, first published in 1635, was one of the best atlas maps available during the first half of the seventeenth century. Where his predecessor Gerard Mercator had, in 1595, shown the North Pole surrounded by four landmasses, Willem Blaeu leaves a blank, unmapped area, omitting Mercator's famous 'black magnetic rock', which was thought to represent the magnetic pole. Blaeu's is one of the prototype maps of the Arctic, incorporating the discoveries made by Captain Thomas James of Bristol along the southern and western shores of Hudson Bay during his expedition of 1631-32. James Bay today commemorates this voyage. Captain James was of the opinion that the Northwest Passage did not exist, declaring to his fellow navigator, Captain Luke Foxe, in the search for the sea route to the Far East, 'you are out of the way to Japon, for this is not it'. Elsewhere, the Arctic shores of Russia reproduce much of the information derived from the voyage of Willem Barentz in 1596-97, while Spitsbergen [Svalbard] is shown as laid down according to James Hall, pilot of the Danish expedition of 1605-07. However, Blaeu corrects the mistake made by Hall, and later copied by Samuel Purchas in 1625, in labelling Spitsbergen as Greenland, perhaps not an unforgivable mistake since on most early maps both islands appear remarkably similar in outline! " (Goss). "The unknown north-west coast is conveniently hidden behind a decorative title cartouche. Two foxes, two hunters, and a polar bear grace the cartouche [...]. One unusual feature of this map is the attemp to show rhumb lines on a polar map; here the lines are curved to reflect a straight line path." (Burden) "One of the many cases of duplication by the firms of Blaeu and Hondius of each other's work. This [ map ] is identical to that of Hondius' partner, Janssonius, in 1637, even the cartouches are the same. But Janssonius had placed his imprint in the lower right cartouche; Blaeu has the scale here. [...]. Unfortunately it is not feasible to place an accurate date on this map as the French 'Appendice' in which it first appears is undated. The earliest use of this supplement of maps is Koeman 16A, dated 1638-40. The reason for the confusion could well be the death of Willem Blaeu in 1638. The presence of his imprint on the title page of the 'Appendice' appears to corroborate a latest possible date of 1638. The 'Appendice' itself is always found bound with the third volume dated 1640. A second state of the map first appears in the French edition of 1645. This bears a dedication to Guilielmo Backer, signed by Joan Blaeu. The plate seems to have survived the great fire at the printing house in 1672, and was sold following the death of Joan Blaeu in 1673. Koeman informs us that the copperplates were auctioned 20 April 1677, the majority passing to Abraham Wolfgang in partnership with other booksellers such as Boom, van Waesberge and van Someren. It is during this period that the map can aslo be found in atlases by Nicolaas Visscher. Following the death of Wolfgang in 1694 many copperplates were again sold at auction; who purchased this plate is not easily identified but it does appear in atlases of Allard, 1705, and Ottens, c.1729. In all of these post-Blaeu issues the map appears without text on the reverse." (Burden). GUARANTEE We do not sell reproductions. We guarantee that this is a genuine and original antique map that was published on or near the given date. A certificate of authentication is provided on request. Price € 1000 Antique Maps Leen Helmink