Antique Map of Surrey by Blaeu

17th century antique map of Surrey by Joan Blaeu

Surrey circa 1645-48

From the atlas Le Theatre dun Monde ou Nouvel Atlas published in Amsterdam between 1645 and 1648 with French text verso.

See full details here: Antique map of Surrey County by Blaeu






Joan Blaeu 1596-1673A famous firm of Dutch cartographers and publishers was established in the late 16th century by Willem Janszoon Blaeu in Amsterdam. Blaeu was a maker of globes and scientific instruments and purchased some of his early map plates from Jodocus Hondius. From this small beginning was to emerge one of the largest and most prolific map publishing houses of the seventeenth century.

Willem's two sons, Joan and Cornelius, both entered the family business and in 1630 the firm published its first world atlas, bound in a single volume. This was increased to two volumes in 1635 and to three in 1640.

In 1645 Joan Blaeu published a county Atlas of England and Wales as part of his Atlas Novus, with maps based mainly on the earlier research of Saxton and Speed. The atlas was regarded as a masterpiece with a balanced style and calligraphic quality that has never been surpassed.

Other antique maps of Surrey

More antique maps by Blaeu here

18th Century Sea Chart of the Isles of Scilly

This antiquarian chart by Captain Greenville Collins is dated circa 1756 and features Land's End, The Lizard and Scilly Isles

Capt. Greenville Collins
In 1676 Collins was commissioned by Charles II, and appointed by Samuel Pepys (who was then Secretary to the Admiralty), to chart the coasts of Great Britain and he produced his Great Britain's Coasting Pilot in 1693, this was the first original sea atlas to be produced by an Englishman.

Collins engaged the services of various engravers to cut the plates including Herman Moll, Harris, Moxon and Lamb, final publication was twelve years after the initial commission.

Other Antique Sea Charts

Dartmouth - Greenville Collins Chart

The decorative chart of Dartmouth in Devon by Captain Greenville Collins is dated circa 1756.  It depicts the safe anchorage points and headlands in relief.  These were also the first charts to place buildings on the coast to aid triangulation and recognition.

See a selection of charts from the English Coasting Pilot by Greenville Collins  here

See also - old nautical charts

Antique Painting of the River Yealm

Painted by Charles Edward Butler in 1913 this colourful painting depicts a summer's day on the Yealm looking North towards the distant Dartmoor, with Thorn House near Wembury in the trees on the left.

With the tide in flood, the folk enjoying an afternoon out in their boats can be seen drifting down stream in the direction of the Yealm Hotel.

More details here: River Yealm antique painting

Antique Pictures Exhibition

Spring 2010 Exhibition

An extensive and varied collection of Victorian and Edwardian fine art.

Landscape, Dartmoor scenes, Sescapes, Genre, Animals.

View the online catalogue here

[caption id="attachment_123" align="alignnone" width="496" caption="Victorian Oil Painting - Mother and Daughter - Kate Gray dated 1884"][/caption]

Old Sea Chart of Falmouth by Capt. Greenville Collins

[caption id="attachment_118" align="alignnone" width="497" caption="18th century antique chart of Falmouth by Greenville Collins"][/caption]

An eighteenth century Chart of Falmouth from The British Coasting Pilot by Captain Greenville Collins circa 1756.  Featuring a highly decorative title cartouche and a detail of the Helford River.

See more antique maps here

Captain Greenville Collins
Commissioned by Charles II in 1676, Captain Greenville Collins was appointed by Samuel Pepys ( Secretary to the Admiralty), to chart the coasts of British Isles and in 1693 he completed the magnificent Great Britain's Coasting Pilot.  This was the first original sea atlas to be produced by an Englishman, the British Navy up to this point was largely relying on Dutch charts.

Several engravers were engaged by Collins to cut the plates for these wonderfully decorative charts, including Herman Moll, Harris, Moxon and Lamb, final publication was twelve years after the initial commission including the seven year nautical survey.

See full details of this antique chart of Falmouth here

17th Century Map of China Tibet and Mongolia

Scythia et Tartaria Asiatica - Phillip Cluverius from Cluver's Introductionis en Universum Geographicus circa 1697.

See full details here - Antique map of China and Tibet

An antique map of Great Wall of China, Tartary, and the region from the Caspian East to China, including Tibet, Mongolia and Asian Russia.

Philipp Clüver (1580 - 1622)

Born in Danzig (Gdańsk), in Royal Prussia, a province of the Kingdom of Poland. After spending some time at the Polish court of Sigismund III Vasa, he began the study of law at the University of Leiden (Dutch Republic), but soon he turned his attention to history and geography, which were then taught there by Joseph Scaliger. Clüver received science education from his father, who was Münzmeister at Danzig (coin master), but when Clüver went into different studies, his father stopped supporting his studies.

He then travelled from Leiden across Hungary to Bohemia, where he did military service for a few years. While in Bohemia, he translated into Latin a defence by Baron Popel Lobkowitz, who was imprisoned. Upon his return to Leiden, he faced sanctions by the imperial (Habsburg) authorities for this, which however he could avoid with the help of his Leiden friends. Clüver also travelled in England, Scotland, and France. He did all travel on foot, he finally returning to Leiden, where (after 1616) he received a regular pension from the university.

Clüver was an antiquary, who was given a special appointment at Leiden as geographer and put in charge of the university's library, but his life's project, it developed, was a general study of the geography of Antiquity, based not only on classical literary sources, but — and this was his contribution — supplemented by wide travels and local inspections. He became virtually the founder of historical geography. Clüver's first work, in 1611, concerning the lower reaches of the Rhine and its tribal inhabitants in Roman times, touched a source of national pride among the Seventeen Provinces, for the Dutch were enjoying an eight years' truce in their Eighty Years' War of liberation. Clüver's Germaniae antiquae libri tres (Leiden, 1616) depends on Tacitus and other Latin authors. A volume on the antiquities of Sicily, with notes on Sardinia and Corsica , published at Leiden by Louis Elsevier in 1619, is a useful source, with many reference from writers of Antiquity and maps that are often detached and sold to map collectors.

His Introductio in universam geographiam, totally 6 parts, (published from 1624) became a standard geographical textbook. Clüver was also a prolific a writer on mathematical and theological subjects. He is remembered by collectors and historians of cartography for his edition of Ptolemy's Geographia (based on Mercator's edition of 1578) and for miniature atlases that were reprinted for most of the 17th century. Many of his maps were etched for him by Petrus Bertius.

Other work by Philipp Cluver here