NAMUR BELGIUM 1720 REINER & JOSHUA OTTENS ANTIQUE ORIGINAL COPPER ENGRAVED MAP ANTIQUE COPPER ENGRAVED MAP OF NAMUR BELGIUM BY OTTENS Condition: --not specified Ended:Jul 09, 2022 , 7:01AM Winning bid: US $40.00 NAMUR BELGIUM 1720 REINER & JOSHUA OTTENS ANTIQUE ORIGINAL COPPER ENGRAVED MAP Description le Comtй de Namur Dressй sur les Memoires les plus Nouveau par F. de Witt. === Comitatus Namurcensis ex Correctionibus Auctoribus Exceptus F. de Witt off: R. & I. Ottens. Description: Striking and highly detailed fine unusual 1740 Isaac Tirion's copper engraved map of the County of Namur, in Belgium, based on the cartography by Frederic de Wit. The map is filled with excellant topographic details on cities, towns, rivers, lakes, forests and regional divisions. a large monument-style tile & mileage scales cartouche with regional coat of arms & cherub and a block-style topographic legend cartouche decorate the chart. Date: 1720 ( undated ) Dimension: Paper size approx.: cm 62,2 x 52,9 Condition: Very strong and dark impression on good paper. Paper with chains and wiremarks. Map old original colored. Wide margins. Mergin at the top partially redone near central side and handwitten. Small foxing and browning. Small tears and holes restored. Small waterstains along the margins. Map heavy washed and restored. Map folded. Conditions are as you can see in the images. Mapmakers: The Ottens Family Joachim Ottens (1663-1719), was a copper-engraver and the founder of the print- and mapsellers’ firm in Amsterdam. In 1710 he became a member of the art- and printsellers guild. After he died in 1719, his widow and the sons continued the business under the name “In de Wereldcaert” (In the world map). On the whole, the Ottens’s financial position was rather weak, and the stock was not very large. In a notary contract dated 20 October 1726, the partnership between the two brothers, Reinier and Josua, was stipulated. Despite separate shops, the brothers’ partnership continued until the death of Renier in 1750. After Joshua died in 1765, his widow continued the firm, together with her son, Renier II, until c. 1780. The firm flourished mainly between 1719 and c. 1750. In that period, they advertised at various times the publication of new maps. Ottens’s greatest fame comes from the voluminous atlases assembled to order. A small number of these so-called ‘Atlas factice’, splendid copies with gorgeous illumination, have survived. These collector’s copies are known to exist in 2, 6, 8, 11, and even 15 volumes. Ottens also published atlases in one volume, with a varying number of maps, pocket atlases, collections of military plans, and Renard’s atlas de la navigation. Frederik de Wit (1629 - 1706) was a Dutch Golden Age cartographer active in the second half of the 17th and the early 18th centuries. De Wit was born of middle class Protestant stock in the western Netherlandish town of Gouda. He relocated to Amsterdam sometime before 1648, where he worked under Willem Blaeu. His first attributed engraved map, a plan of Haarlem for Antonius Sanderus' Flandria Illustrata, was issued around this time. He struck out on his own in 1654. The first chart that De Wit personally both drew and engraved was most likely his 1659 map of Denmark, REGNI DANIЖ Accuratissima delineatio Perfeckte Kaerte van ‘t CONJNCKRYCK DENEMARCKEN. His great wall map of the world and most famous work, Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula appeared one year later. Following the publication of his wall map De Wit quickly rose in prominence as a both cartographer and engraver. He married Maria van der Way in 1661 and through her became a citizen of Amsterdam in 1662. Around this time he also published his first major atlas, a composite production ranging in size from 17 to over 150 maps and charts. Other atlases and individual maps followed. In 1689 De Wit was granted a 15 year Privilege by the Dutch States General. (An early copyright that protected the recipient's rights to print and publish.) He was recognized with the honorific 'Good Citizen' in 1694. De Wit died in 1706 after which his wife Maria continued publishing his maps until about 1710. De Wit's son, Franciscus, had no interest in the map trade, instead choosing to prosper as a stockfish merchant. On her own retirement, Maria sold most De Wit maps and plates at a public auction. Most were acquired by Pieter Mortier and laid the groundwork for the 1721 rise of Covens and Mortier, the largest Dutch cartographic publishing house of the 18th century.