Swann Auction Galleries Will Offer Manuscript Map on Vellum of Dutch East India Company Colonies

Swann Auction Galleries will offer a manuscript map on vellum showing the closely held trading routes and ports in the Dutch East India Company colonies that now form Indonesia. The manuscript is a leading lot in the upcoming Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books sale. This chart is a well-preserved, rare artifact from an early Asia trade concern, the Dutch East India Company, or VOC. Swann Galleries records show this will be the first appearance of a VOC manuscript of this caliber at auction since the early 1990s. The area depicted constitutes Dutch navigation out of Batavia (now Jakarta) and the areas that would have immediately fed into that central port. The mind behind the map was Isaak de Graaf (1668 – 1743), the official cartographer of the VOC during the first half of the 18th century. The 1743 date would make it one of the last charts produced by de Graaf, who died in September of that year. 

Also available is Robert John Thornton’s A New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus Von Linnæus. Thornton (1768 – 1837) was an English physician and botanical writer. This color plate catalog features 12 engraved calligraphic part titles, dedications, and contents leaves from the book. It also comes with ten uncolored engraved tables and plates, including portraits of Thornton, Queen Charlotte, and Thomas Millington, and two portrait plates of Linnaeus. They are all stipple-engraved plates of classical allegory printed in colors and finished by hand with watermarks of “J.Whatman,” “E&P,” and “J.Ruse.” A large engraved map of Belgium and the Netherlands zoomorphically styled as a formidable lion “Leo Belgicus” or the Belgian Lion by renowned Dutch engraver Claes Janszoon Visscher is also available in the auction. View the complete Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books catalog and register to bid by visiting Swann Auction Galleries. 

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