Extraordinary rare first state of a very fine print series of the Honselaarsdijk palace and gardens at Honselersdijk (near Naaldwijk), complete with all 16 views. They are all signed, numbered, and captioned in Dutch, and have been coloured by hand. We have not been able to find any other copies of the complete series in the first state.
The monumental palace of Honselaarsdijk was built between 1621 and 1647 on the orders of the stadholder Frederik Hendrik (1584-1647), who - together with his wife Amalia van Solms, and in the context of their ambition to enhance the position and power of the House of the Dutch stadholder, possibly to a Royal status - was involved in a project to build a number of new prestigious castles and manor houses in and around The Hague (Huis Ten Bosch, Rijswijk, and Honselaarsdijk), as well in the country (Soestdijk, Het Loo, Dieren, etc.). He financed the building of Honselaarsdijk mainly with the money coming from the "Silverfleet", captured from the Spaniards by Piet Hein in 1629. A number of important architects were involved with the Honselaarsdijk-project, among others the famous Jacob van Campen (1596-1657) and Pieter Post (1608-1669). French garden architects were hired for designing the gardens. King William III further embellished the gardens under the direction of the architect Jacob Roman (1640-1716). As early as 1671 William III was personally involved with the rebuilding of the water supply system at Honselaarsdijk, as evidenced by a letter of Christiaan Huygens to his brother Lodewijk. The palace later became known as "Little Versailles". After the death of William III in 1702, the estate was neglected and ultimately demolished in 1815. All that still remains is a part of the garden and parts of the coach-houses.
Abraham Blooteling (1640-1690), a pupil of Cornelis Van Dalen II (1636-1664), was a Dutch engraver, draughtsman, and print seller. His dated prints begin to appear in 1665, and they include portraits, biblical, mythological and genre subjects, as well as six views of Amsterdam after Jacob van Ruisdael, and two of the Jewish burial-ground in Ouderkerk (1670, also after van Ruisdael). From 1672-78 he worked in London with Gerard Valck. His major contribution was in the development of the new technique of mezzotint, specifically, the invention of the rocker, the tool used in the technique. In England the technique was adopted with such success that it later became known as the "English Manner". Blooteling was again in Amsterdam by September 1678, when he acted as godfather to his nephew Abraham Valck, but he kept up his contacts with London.
Between 1681 and 1685 his presence in The Hague is recorded. During these years he engraved a major view of Honselaarsdijk (385 x 482 mm) after the design by Abraham Begheyn, alias Bega (1637-1697). It is likely that he engraved our 16 views in the same year, probably also after the drawings by Abraham Bega. However, both the 16 views and the bird's eye view are now exceptionally rare. In fact, the present 16 views were until now only known in their second state, the reissue by Gerard Valck (1651/2-1726) in his Veues et perspectives de Loo, Honslardyck et Soestdyck, chasteau & maison de plaisance du Roy de la Grande Bretagne (1695). The views in the second state are numbered differently and lack Blooteling's name.
Some of the views have been cut a few millimetres short on the right hand side, two of the blank leaves with a crease and two pinprick holes in the bottom margin. Otherwise a fine hand coloured copy. Hunt & de Jong, The Anglo-Dutch garden, pp. 136-7; cf. Hollstein II, p. 216, no. 117 (bird's eye view of Honselaarsdijk by Blooteling after A. Bega dated 1683) & XXI, p. 267, nos. 95-16 (same print-series by G. Valck dated 1695); Thieme/ Becker IV, pp. 139-40; not in Springer.