Amsterdam 1703   
      
Decorative Later Dutch map of Africa :  AFRICA. ELABORATISSIMA. P.Schenk ex: Amstel: cum Privil: 

Original copperplate printed map:  
48 x 58 cm.
Map #AFS-149  
$1,200
 
 

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Spectacular cartouche is in the lower left of the map.  The title is on plinth surmounted by fruits & animals. Table Mountain is in the distant background. To the left is a crocodile and behind is an obelisk and an African mounted on an elephant with panniers and armour.  The map has an exaggerated outline with deeply scalloped bays. As is customary with earlier maps, the Nile arises from Lakes Zaire/Zembre and Zaflan in the Ptolomeic design. The Congo also rises from Lake Zaire.   Schenk collaborated with Gerard Valk, a map engraver and seller from Germany, from about 1680. In 1687, Schenk, who had been a pupil of Valk married Valk's sister and entered into a long, more formal relationship with Valk and Valk's son Leonard (1675-1746). The map appeared in Schenk's Atlas Contractus between c.1703 and 1709.  This atlas was a specially-assembled, nonstandardized atlas with the number and composition of maps differing in the various copies known.

Betz, p. 466-467.  Norwich, Map #63.

Overall fine condition, with some support on verso to original color oxidation; one small workhole in south Atlantic.