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A RARE MANUSCRIPT MAP BY A FAMOUS DUTCH HYDRAULIC ENGINEER





[MAP - NETHERLANDS - SCHIELAND]. BLANKEN JZN., Arie.  Kaart figuratief van de Situatie van den Storm Polder en aanpaalende rivieren, dijken, gorssen enz. waar op aangewesen word, de plaats alwaar de steenen noodsluis door de Geinteresseerden van de Geoctroijeerde Veenerij in de Krimpenre Waard, ten behoeven van dezelve Waard en verdere districten bij of omtrent het Nieuwe Veer in den Ijssel-dijk zal gelegt worden.
[Krimpen aan den IJssel?], An. 1799. Manuscript map in ink (44,5x25,5 cm). The title in a cartouche at bottom left, with to the right a scale bar of 200  Rijnland rods. To the right a compass rose. In passe-partout.

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A. van den Brink, Gespaard landschap: De Stolwijkersluis en de Geoctroyeerde Vervening van de Krimpenerwaard, In: Tidinge van Die Goude  2003, nr. 2, p. 37-48.  A delicate manuscript map of the construction of an emergency lock in the Krimpenerwaard near the Stormpolder, west of the village of Krimpen aan de IJssel. The map provides a full perspective of the local situation, accentuating the key hydraulic features of the surrounding river landscape. The map was almost certainly drawn by Arie Blanken Jzn. (1765-1824) who designed and supervised the building works. It is probably that the map originally formed part of a series of technical drawings on the precise construction of the lock, as well as a written report wherein the project and specific features such as the letters A. and B. north of the lock are detailed. Together with his brother Jan, Arie Blanken Jzn developed into the most important and influential Dutch engineers and cartographers of his generation. Their farther Jan Teunis Blanken was an inspector of the dikes of the water board of the Krimpenerwaard and he trained both his sons in this field. Already at the age of fifteen Arie Blanken Jzn. took up a post with the water board of the province of Holland, starting a career that would steer him into a high-ranked position within governmental hydraulics eventually.
In 1799 Blanken was appointed Director of the so-called "Geoctrooieerde vervening van de Krimpennerwaard", an organization dating from 1797 and responsible for the dredging of a part (ca. 2470 hectares) of the water board district of the Krimpenerwaard in the south eastern part of the province of Holland. In the charter of this organization was stipulated that before the actual dredging would start, a surrounding dike and an infrastructure of sluices had to be completed first. Three locks were built, the so-called Stolwijkersluis, a second lock north of Ouderkerk and an emergency lock near Krimpen aan de IJssel through which, in the case of a dike burst, water could be drained away as quickly as possible. After the completion of the encircling dike in 1803 the dredging actually started though already in 1818 the whole project came to an end because of disappointing results.
In a good condition. A fine example of hydraulic cartography.