Beschreibung:

DONCKER, Hendrick I (1626-1699) or Hendrik DONCKER II (1664-1739). Amsterdam . Amsterdam: [after 1685, perhaps c.1700]. Extremely rare example of this stunning panorama of Amsterdam at the height of the Dutch Golden Age. The economic power of the Netherlands, based upon its sea power at this time in history, is plain for the viewer to see, as huge numbers of ships and other water-craft dominate the IJ. Unlike London, which was devastated by the Great Fire, the Amsterdam of the mid-17th century is still highly recognisable today, even if the waterfront is now obscured by the main railway station. This print is a reworked version based on Jacob Savry's panorama first published in 1647 (d'Ailly 55). This is known to have been copied by Justus Danckerts around 1685 (d'Ailly 143), van Keulen in about 1720 (d'Ailly 178), and Ottens c. 1730 (d'Ailly 186). No Doncker imprint is recorded by d'Ailly, but the signature suggests that Doncker either copied or reworked the plates from Danckerts. The Danckerts' panorama is signed in a parallelogram in the lower right-hand corner of sheet 4 'I. Danckers excudit'; there is a copy of this in the Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Dreesmann Atlas), but unfortunately we have not been able to undertake an online or physical comparison. The present lot has the same parallelogram in sheet 4, but the 'I' now has a crossbar in drypoint to form an 'H' with the downstroke of the 'D', and the name now reads 'Doncker', but without any further evidence of reworking. The plate shows much urban development after 1665, including the Niewe Stathuys, Niewe Statherberg and the development to the east (i.e. left-hand-side of the print), including the 't Landts Magesyn and De Lijbanen vande Admiraliteyt en Oostindische Compangnie'. d'Ailly records smaller profiles of Amsterdam published by Doncker in the 1670s (see nos 124, 126, 127), but not this panorama. We have only been able to trace one other example of this state of the panorama in the BnF, Collection ge´ographique du marquis de Paulmy, 2325; a physical comparison has not been made. A.E. d'Ailly, Repertorium van de profielen der stad Amsterdam en van de plattegronden der schutterswijken (Amsterdam, 1953). Engraved map on 4 numbered sheets joined, the view centred on the Niewe Kerck, paper watermarked with a fleur-de-lis surmounting Strasbourg bend countermarked 'G.P.' which is suggestive of an early 18th-century paper, the arms of Amsterdam in the sky, signed 'H. Doncker Excudit' in lower right-hand corner of sheet 4, 415 x 2144mm (plate mark), 467 x 2193mm (sheets joined).