18th-Century Map of Holland – Robert de Vaugondy & Guillaume Delahaye – 1748

This map is over 275 years old.
When it was printed in 1748, the Netherlands as we know it today did not yet exist.
Cities, provinces and national borders were different, and Amsterdam was still a young world city in the making.
The map has since lived through more than two and a half centuries of history.
Now it can tell another piece of history on your wall.

Product description

A beautiful original 18th-century copperplate map of Holland, published in Paris in 1748 by the French geographer Gilles Robert de Vaugondy and engraved by Guillaume Delahaye. The map bears the title Carte generale des IX de la Hollande; avec la Seig. d'Utrecht, Partie de la Gueldre, &c.

What makes this map special is that it is not a standard overview map, but an index or key map for a series of nine detailed maps. The Roman numerals on the map refer to the individual maps that together depicted the regions of Holland, Utrecht and parts of Gelderland in detail. 

The map clearly shows Holland, Utrecht, the Veluwe, Gelderland, the Zuiderzee and the Wadden Islands, among others. Cities such as Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden, Rotterdam, Haarlem and Nijmegen, along with many smaller towns and villages, are accurately depicted.

The map is a copperplate engraving with original hand colouring, with the borders and landscape features particularly accentuated in subtle green, yellow and reddish tones. The fine engraving reveals countless historical place names, waterways and national borders.

Another particularly beautiful detail is the old cartographic approach: the Netherlands is not depicted as we know it today, but as a landscape of provinces, lordships, waterways and historical regions. This makes the map not only decorative, but also a fascinating document of Dutch history.

The entire piece is professionally and neatly framed, allowing the map to be hung immediately as a decorative historical object.

The 1748 map

The map was part of the Atlas portatif universel et militaire, an atlas published by Robert de Vaugondy in Paris. The map belongs to a series of nine detailed maps of Holland and Utrecht. The Utrecht University Library holds both the index map and the individual detailed maps, and describes the map as a copy of an earlier map by Caspar Specht.

This makes the map particularly interesting for collectors of old maps, Dutch history and historical cartography.

This map has a watermark, clearly visible when held separately up to the light. This was commonly done in the 18th century and is a wonderful piece of history and proof of authenticity.

Specifications