Sign In

Fine old color example of the Johannes Vingboons chart of the Southeastern United States and Caribbean, one of the few extant printed examples of the work of Vingboons, perhaps the single most important cartographic illustrator of his time.

No example of the original Vingboons chart is known, although the Library of Congress possesses a manuscript chart by Vingboons from which this chart is likely derived. In his important work on the Mapping of North America, Phillip Burden located only 1 known example of the second state of the map and 2 known examples of the third states of the map.

Vingboons map is based upon Hessel Gerritsz map of the region, prepared circa 1631. Vingboons has extensively updated and supplemented the map with additional interior details.

While Vingboons original artwork was very important and highly sought after in its time, very few of his maps were printed, as the vast majority of material which he created was considered proprietary and therefore a secret guarded by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and Dutch West India Company (WIC)

Johannes Vingboons (1617-1670) was one of the most important cartographic illustrators in Amsterdam in the middle part of the 17th Century and performed a relatively unique role for his employers. By combining his traditional expertise as a mapmaker with his artistic skills as a trained watercolorist, he produced water colors of exotic lands based on scrupulous research. These he based on reports and sketches brought back from expeditions undertaken by the VOC and WIC. He made city elevations, plans, coastal profiles and sea charts, combining them until he had produced a unique series of images that gave an accurate image of a large part of the world then known to Dutch trade. For many of these areas, his are the earliest images.

Vingboons's work was unique and a sought after collector's item in its own time for rich private individuals. The largest batch, a series of 130 watercolors bound in three atlases, was bought in 1654 by Queen Christina of Sweden. After her death these atlases came into the possession of Pope Alexander VIII, and now rest in the library of the Vatican. The next largest collection, more than hundred works, is in the possession of the National Archives in the Hague. A small number of watercolors are in the Medici Library in Florence. Four signed parchment world maps form part of the collection of the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam.