Scarce two sheet map of the Poland, the Baltic Sea and contiguous regions.
The map includes a number of sea routes throughout the North Sea, Danish Sea and Baltic, ultimately connecting Finland and Latvia with Rotterdam, Friedrichstadt, Dantzig, Stockholm, Gothenberg, Hamburg and other major trade centers of the early 18th Century. Marvelously embellished. Includes an inset of Isle De Huene. London is actually depicted in a distorted fashion across the English Channel.
The map was engraved by Van Loon and originally published in 1700, with the date shown in the lower right cartouche. The present example, which is updated to 1705 is unusual, in that both plates have been printed on a single sheet. When this map appears on the market, it has frequently been printed on two sheets, then cut. and joined to form a single sheet, rather than in the present example, which reflects the full extent of the two copper plates, with the full engraved borders. The map also appears on the market as a single sheet, lacking the right sheet.
Nicholas de Fer (1646-1720) was the son of a map seller, Antoine de Fer, and grew to be one of the most well-known mapmakers in France in the seventeenth century. He was apprenticed at twelve years old to Louis Spirinx, an engraver. When his father died in 1673, Nicholas helped his mother run the business until 1687, when he became the sole proprietor.
His earliest known work is a map of the Canal of Languedoc in 1669, while some of his earliest engravings are in the revised edition of Methode pour Apprendre Facilement la Geographie (1685). In 1697, he published his first world atlas. Perhaps his most famous map is his wall map of America, published in 1698, with its celebrated beaver scene (engraved by Hendrick van Loon, designed by Nicolas Guerard). After his death in 1720, the business passed to his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jacques-Francois Benard.