Antique Maps Asia

MA 1

Nova et Exacta Asiae Geographica Descriptio

Asia

Willem Janszoon Blaeu / Stefano Scolari

1650

48" x 36" (122 x 91.5 cm)

Framed: $160

Unframed: $70

First published in about 1609, Blaeu’s original map of Asia was, at the time of publication both a monumental work of visual artistry and at the cutting edge of cartographic knowledge.  Blaeu enjoyed the benefit of access to the newest information coming from early Dutch explorations in the region, and would later become the official mapmaker of both the Dutch East India Company and Dutch West India Company.  His first set of maps was issued in 1608 and 1609, a wall map of the World, the four continents, and the Holy Roman Empire.  This 1646 map is a close copy of the original Blaeu wall map of Asia created by the Venetian cartographer Stefano Scolari.  

 The map is a spectacular example of the grand genre of wall, or parlor, maps that enjoyed an iconic place in 17th and early 18th-century Europe. At the pinnacle of this genre were the maps of the Blaeu family, generally regarded as the finest wall map makers of the Golden Age.  Large, highly decorative, and expensive productions were considered to be the ultimate signs of wealth and intellectual sophistication. In this vein, Blaeu wall maps appeared prominently in works of fine art, most notably the paintings of Johannes Vermeer. The map offers a well-researched overview of Asia as understood in Amsterdam at the start of the seventeenth century. The Great Wall of China is included, as are many narrative notes borrowed from voyage and travel accounts as old as Marco Polo and as recent as the first Dutch voyages to the East Indies and Japan at the turn of the seventeenth century. The Dutch were expanding their trading empire at this time, as well as starting to dominate the map trade. When this map was originally compiled in the first decade of the seventeenth century, the Dutch were making inroads in the East Indies spice trade and the China trade in places like Macao. The map does not include Australia, but the Dutch would also encounter that landmass in the first decades of the century. 

Inland areas are thickly blanketed with towns, mountain ranges, deserts, and other features. For example, the Arabian Peninsula shows many settlements ringing the coasts before giving way to a desert interior. It also has sites that are still familiar today. These include Bahrem (Bahrain), Mt. Sinai, Mecca, and Medina.

The twelve town and city views also originate from travel writing and city books, especially Braun and Hogenberg’s Civitates Orbis Terrarum.  Goa is from the evergreen Linschoten, Bantam from the work of De Houtman, and Gammalamme from Van Neck. 

Stefano Scolari was active between 1644 and 1687. He was a designer, engraver and editor from Brescia, although he practiced his trade in Venice. His shop, in S. Zulian under the sign of the Three Virtues, was one of the best known in seventeenth-century Venice. He engraved, printed, and traded in prints, particularly, maps. He specialized in the re-issue of important maps including Gastaldi's map of Lombardy and the 12-sheet map of Italy by Greuter. 

MA 2

Asia

Willem Janszoon Blaeu

1650

32" x 25.5" (81 x 65 cm)

Framed: $110

Unframed: $45

Fine example of Blaeu's highly-stylized map of the continent of Asia, one of the most recognizable representations of the continent from the seventeenth century. The map is framed by ten pairs of people meant to personify Asian cultures. At top, nine Asian cities show the rich trading opportunity that Asia represented for Europeans. 

Blaeu’s geography was most up to date for its time, thanks in large part to his access to Dutch East India Company (VOC) charts, but a few features are still notable for their surprising appearances to the modern eye. Korea is shown as an island just barely unconnected to the Asian mainland, while Japan is oddly projected in a horizontal style that was typical to this period. The coast north of Korea is only roughly drawn, as it had not been surveyed in detail. To the south, large portions of the Borneo coastline and other parts of the islands in Southeast Asia are incomplete or highly inaccurate. 

The cities—Kandy, Calcutta, Goa, Damascus, Jerusalem, Hormuz, Bantam, Aden, and Macao—shown in ovals along the top of the map show major trade centers. Some, like Jerusalem, Damascus, and Aden, were in the Middle East. Others, like Macao and Goa, were at the center of the trade routes of China and India, where Europeans had been flocking for over a century to gain access to spices, porcelain, silks, and other luxury goods. 

The costumed figures shown here are drawn from a variety of sources including costume books, popular prints, and travel literature. The Chinese come from De Bry images, while the Japanese and the Marianas islanders are taken from De Noort’s voyage account. The Tartars are inspired by the prints of Eneo Vito, while the Muscovites are based on the work of Joost Amman. The Syrians are from Nicolas de Nicoloay and the Gujaratis from Linschoten.   

Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638) was a prominent Dutch geographer and publisher. Born the son of a herring merchant, Blaeu chose not fish but mathematics and astronomy for his focus. He studied with the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, with whom he honed his instrument and globe making skills. Blaeu set up shop in Amsterdam, where he sold instruments and globes, published maps, and edited the works of intellectuals like Descartes and Hugo Grotius. In 1635, he released his atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive, Atlas novus.

Willem died in 1638. He had two sons, Cornelis (1610-1648) and Joan (1596-1673). Joan trained as a lawyer, but joined his father’s business rather than practice. After his father’s death, the brothers took over their father’s shop and Joan took on his work as hydrographer to the Dutch East India Company. Later in life, Joan would modify and greatly expand his father’s Atlas novus, eventually releasing his masterpiece, the Atlas maior, between 1662 and 1672.

MA 3

India Orientalis

Jodocus Hondius

c. 1610

24" x 18" (61 x 46 cm)

Framed: $85

Unframed: $35

MA 4

Asia

Gerard Mercator

1613

24" x 20" (61 x 51 cm)

Framed: $85

Unframed: $35

MA 5

Le Royaume de Siam avec 

les Royaumes qui luy sont Tributaires

Joachim Ottens

1710

24" x 18" (61 x 46 cm)

Framed: $85

Unframed: $35

MA 6

Tabula Indiae Orientalis, 1662

30" x 25" (76 x 63.5 cm)

Framed: $110

Unframed: $45

MA 7

L' Inde de la le Gange 

1714

30" x 23.5" (76 x 60 cm)

Framed: $100

Unframed: $40

MA 8

Carte de L’Inde au-dela du Gange 

comprenant les Royaumes de Siam, 

 de Tunquin, Pegu, Ava, Aracan, etc.

Nicolas de Fer

 1710

15" x 15" (38 x 38 cm)

Framed: $60

Unframed: $25 

MA 9

Carte du royaume de Siam 

et des Pays circonvoisins

Pierre Du Val

1686

18" x 24" (46 x 61 cm)

Framed: $85

Unframed: $35

MA 10

Royaume De Siam, avec Les Royaumes qui luy sont-Tributaries, et les Isles de Sumatra, Andemaon, etc

Jean Baptiste Nolin

1742

18" x 24" (46 x 61 cm)

Framed: $85

Unframed: $35

MA 11

L' Asie 

1652

27" x 20.5" (68.5 x 52 cm)

Framed: $90

Unframed: $35

MA 12

Karte von dem Bengalischen Meerbusen, 1740

13" x 10.5" (33 x 27 cm)

Framed: $50

Unframed: $20

MA 13

Die Indochinesischen Reiche, Birma, 

Siam, Kambodja und Anam, 1867

36" x 29.5" (91.5 x 75 cm)

Framed: $120

Unframed: $50