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SORGVLIET & ANGUIEN IN 49 PLATES
EXQUISITLY COLOURED & HIGHLIGHTED IN GOLD
AVEELE (AVELEN), Johannes vanden. ['t Parck van Anguien (Enghien)].
[Amsterdam], Nicolaas Visscher, ca. 1695.
WITH: AVEELE, Johannes vanden.
[Het Schoone Perk van Sorgvliet (Zorgvliet)].
[Amsterdam], Nicolaas Visscher, ca. 1695. Small oblong folio (20 x 30.5 cm). 2 works in 1 volume. Two etched print series showing the buildings and gardens of two of the greatest estates of the Low Countries, Anguien with a plan and 16 views (11 x 15 cm), designated with the letters A-R; Sorgvliet with 32 unnumbered views (11 x 15.5 cm). The whole exquisitely and subtly coloured and highlighted in gold by a contemporary hand. Near contemporary sheepskin parchment.
| Orders and Information | € 42500 |
Beautifully coloured and gold-highlighted copies of rare early editions (Anguien probably the first and Sorgvliet the second of five) of two important and beautiful horticultural, architectural and garden-art print series, drawn and etched by Johannes vanden Aveele (ca. 1650/55-1727). Anguien begins with a plan of the entire estate followed by sixteen detail views, while Sorgvliet comprises thirty-two detail views. They provide an excellent picture of the buildings, sculpture, labyrinths, lanes, pleasure gardens, cascades, latticework gates, fishponds, canals, artificial hills, fountains, hedges, arbours, etc., and are populated by a wide variety of people. Each print has a caption identifying the scene, and an imprint naming the artist Aveele (in the Sorgvliet series explicitly as artist and etcher) and publisher Visscher, and mentioning a privilege.
Sorgvliet, near the Hague in the Netherlands, originally laid out in 1643 as the estate of the great Dutch writer and statesman Jacob Cats, was greatly expanded after its purchase by Hans Willem Bentinck, friend and confidant of the Dutch head of state and future King of England, Willem III. Much of it survives today and serves as a residence for the Dutch Prime Minister. Anguien, in the province of Henegouwen (Hainaut) in Belgium, was the estate of the Dukes of Arenberg, constructed mostly in the years 1645 to 1685. It suffered neglect in the eighteenth century and was torn down in 1806 to make way for later stately residences. The present-day park retains little of the seventeenth-century form, preserved in the present print series.
The Sorgvliet series was made after 1691, the year of large-scale receptions there. The Anguien series was probably made about the same time, though perhaps planned before the premature death of Duke Philip Charles in 1691, which left his title to his one-year-old son Leopold. Both were certainly made before 1698, when Vanden Aveele left for Sweden. The Sorgvliet series went through a complex series of editions and issues, with several states of the plates. The present appears to be the second printing, with some human figures removed from a few plates (probably by Van den Aveele himself before 1698). Later editions (some published by Covens and Mortier in or after 1721) add one plate of a latticework gate, 7 showing two vases each, and a plan, making 41 plates (as in Atlas van Stolk), but the added plates bore no captions. The series was later numbered [1] (the plan), 2-41, and still later Van den Avelen's and Visscher's names were erased in the plate. The first two printings are small oblong folios, the later three apparently oblong quartos. There are also at least two folio issues, with two plates on each leaf and with four double-page plates. The Anguien series saw less variation, though there may also have been later printings. Although Visscher had published a similar series of Anguien views by De Hooghe ca. 1685, Van den Aveele did not copy them. Five of the present views have no corresponding view in the earlier series, and those that do show the same subject are generally made from a slightly different vantage point and show differences in the architectural and other details.
In the present printings, the Anguien paper is watermarked: 7-point foolscap above "4" and 3 balls (the countermark, if any, is difficult to make out; the plan is on a different stock, perhaps countermarked "IV") and the Sorgvliet: Amsterdam Arms on a platform above overlapping VG [Van Gangelt] = PD (at least in the present copy, 2 plates show a 7-point foolscap, countermark, if any, difficult to make out). Generally a fine copy with generous margins. The head margin of the plan is cut 2 cm short, 1 plate has a marginal tear repaired (3 others are slightly weakened just outside one edge of the plate), and 3 show minor marginal water stains. A splendid copy of rare early editions of print series devoted to two important stately gardens and residences.
