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Highly decorative sea chart of the Antilles or Windward Islands, from Puerto Rico to Trinidad and the Venezuelan Coastline.
The map shows the Caribbean Islands from 'Isla de Margarita' across Barbados, Antigua, St. Christopherus towards Porto Rico (I. de San Iuan de Puerto Rico). This is one of the earliest maps to depict this configuration and was followed by Goos, Van Loon and others.
Hendrik Doncker was a famous bookseller in Amsterdam, who started with the age of 22 years and ran his shop successfully for fifty years. He published his first sea atlas around 1659. Due to the fact, that Hendrik Doncker corrected and improved his charts more frequent then other well known map makers, as van Loon, Goos or Theunis, his business was quite successful and there was a high demand for his works and this reflected also the various improved and corrected editions of sea atlases he published. This map was published in a composit sea atlas by Pieter Goos, who was 'one of the best known maritime booksellers of Amsterdam' (Koeman), he published a number of different sea-atlases or pilot books, his work was very much derivative. With his 'Zee-Atlas' he relied heavily on Hendrick Doncker's 'Zee-Atlas' of 1659.
The present example is printed on excellent thick double paper, it stands out through the highly decorative hand colors and the partially heightening of gold in title cartouches, mileage scales, compass roses or other places.
Hendrik Doncker was a prominent bookseller in Amsterdam best known for his sea charts and nautical atlases. He issued his own original charts, which he updated frequently, and also worked with colleagues like Pieter Goos, for example to produce the pilot guide, De Zeespeigel. He died in 1699, after fifty years in business. His plates then passed to Johannes van Keulen.
