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Attractive antique map of the British Isles by Nicolas Visscher I, published in Amsterdam circa 1670.
The map has the coat of arms of the Royal Family in the lower left. In the upper right are the coats of arms of Scotland, England, and Ireland.
The map contains much detail of counties and cities.
Shirley, British Isles, 88:
It is difficult to believe that this well-balanced map of the British Isles is not a fresh and original engraving. However, closer inspection shows that it is in fact a much reworked old plate belonging to Nicolaes Visscher's father. The 50-year-old plate was originally that used for Claes Janszoon Visscher's British Isles map of c1623, last reissued in 1650 two years before the elder Visscher's death. All the decorative borders have been beaten out, new cartouches added, and the map extended to include the Orkneys and more of the Continent in the new title cartouche a cherub with rod and line peers over the top, an allusive reference to the author.
The assigned date of c.1670 is provisional, and the map may have been revised earlier. After 1677 Nicolaes Visscher would have been entitled to add a privilege to his maps and a later state is known in this form probably issued by Nicolaes Visscher junior after the death of his father in 1679 as it lacks his signature.
States
1. c. 1620. BL Maps C.3.c.9
2. Dated 1630. Rodney Shirley collection.
3. Dated 1650. BL 1080 (2) These three states of the original Visscher map were described in my Early Printed Maps of the British Isles 1477-1650 under entries 384, 421a (Addenda), and 670. The map was also illustrated as plate 66.
4. c. 1670. Title and imprint as indicated above. BL 1080 (3).
5. After 1679. With cum privilegio but without signature 'Nicolaus Visscher excudebat'. Maritime Museum, Rotterdam.
