Leen Helmink Antique Maps & Atlases
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van der Aa
ILES aux environs de la CHINE, ou se tenoient autrafois les fameux Pirates ...
Certificate of Authentication and Description
This is to certify that the item illustrated and described below is a genuine antique
map, print or book that was first produced and published in 1714, today 311 years ago.
July 29, 2025
Cartographer(s)
van der Aa
First Published
Leiden, 1714
This edition
Size
22.5 x 30.0 cms
Technique
Copper engraving
Stock number
19726
Condition
mint
Description
Exceptionally rare sea chart of the waters around Amoy and Quemoy, issued in 1714 in Leiden by Pieter van der Aa. The map is of medium size and is famous for its decorative and spectacular title cartouche and improved geography of the area.
The title cartouche shows navigational instruments, and the famous pirate Koxinga who managed to conquer Formosa from the Dutch.
The map only occurs in the exceptionally rare Galeries Agreeables series.
Rarity
The map is not in any regular van der Aa atlas and is of utmost rarity.
Condition
Pristine copy, from a de luxe plano binding (i.e. bound with no centrefold). Stunning original colour.
Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733)
Records show that van der Aa, born in Leiden in 1659, made an early start in life by being apprenticed to a bookseller at the age of nine and starting his own in business as a book publisher by the time he was twenty-three.
During the following fifty years he published an enormous amount of material including atlases and illustrated works in every shape and size, two of them consisting of no less than 27 and 28 volumes containing over 3,000 maps and plates.
(Moreland & Bannister).