Antique Map of Upper and Lower Austria by Visscher (c.1700)

Description: Antique map titled 'Austriae Archiducatus pars superior in omnes ejusdem (..).' Spectacular large map of Upper and Lower Austria between Passau and Wien with figurative cartouche and armorial vignette. Printed on two sheets and joined. Published by Pieter Schenk junior from the plate by Nicolaas Visscher. With 2 beautiful cartouches. Source unknown, to be determined.

Artists and Engravers: Made by 'Nicolaes Visscher' after 'Pieter Schenk'. For nearly a century the members of the Visscher family were important art dealers and map publishers in Amsterdam. The founder of the business, C. J. Visscher, had premises near to those of Pieter van den Keere and Jodocus Hondius whose pupil he may have been. From about 1620 he designed a number of individual maps, including one of the British Isles, but his first atlas consisted of maps printed from plates bought from van den Keere and issued as they stood with some additions of his own, including historical scenes of battles and sieges for which he had a high reputation. Some maps bear the latinized form of the family name: Piscator. After Visscher's death his son and grandson, both of the same name, issued a considerable number of atlases, constantly revised and brought up to date but most of them lacking an index and with varying contents. The widow of Nicholaes Visscher II carried on the business until it finally passed into the hands of Pieter Schenk. Pieter Schenk / Petrus Schenck ( 1660-1718/19) was born in Germany, but settled in Amsterdam where he first became a pupil of Gerard Valck, the engraver. In 1687 he married Valck's sister and thereafter the Schenk and Valck families were active over a long period with a wide range of interests as print sellers, publishers of books, maps, topographical and architectural drawings and globes. Although they produced some original maps, most of their atlases consisted of printings from revised and re-worked plates originally by Jansson, the Visschers, the Sansons and others. Willebrordus vander Burght was a 17th century Dutch cartographer.