The title here in French and Dutch identifies the mathematician and mapmaker as Claas de Vries (1662-1730). He entered into a contract with Anthoni de Winter an engraver who was already working with Johannes de Loots (1665/6-1726). Two years later in 1698, Loots joined the project to produce a large marine atlas. The idea was to produce it using Mercator’s projection. Whilst a privilege was granted and advert placed in 1698; it was never actually issued. The first state of this plate is dated 1698. Many of the plates were included in other works but the partnership was dissolved in September 1707. Seven days later de Vries’ share of the plates was sold to Gerard van Keulen (1678-1726). Amongst them was this chart.

It depicts a portion of the north coast of Brittany from Cap Frehel to Sept Iles on the largest scale yet published. It was published by Gerard van Keulen and no doubt acquired as a more detailed chart to replace that published earlier by his father, Johannes van Keulen (1654-1715). It is included in editions of ‘De Neiuwe Groote Ligtende Zee-Fakkel’.

Arrows represent the currents with roman numerals relate to the hour at which high tide is reached in relation to other locations. This work is derived from Edmond Halley. Two compass roses are present, that on the right bears nearby an indicator of magnetic north. Below the title are a series of scales. The pagination ’21’ appears in the lower right corner. This is an example of the third state with the date erased.

State 1 – Dated 1698 with the imprint lower left of Anthony de Winter, Claas de Vries, and Ioannes Loots
State 2 – Retaining the date and with the imprint of G. van Keulen lower left
State 3 – Date deleted
State 4 – With the imprint of G. Hulst van Keulen

Provenance: Tooley Adams; private Jersey collection. Koeman (1967-70) Vol. IV pp. 409-15, Lts 2 no. 67, p. 464 (C. de Vries), p. 374 no. 241 & Keu 71 (1734), Keu 75A (c.1756); Shirley (2004) M.KEU 3b no. 51 (1728).