A Short-Lived Practice in Amsterdam Print Publishing Around 1700
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chapter 19 Colourful Topography: A Short-Lived Practice in Amsterdam Print Publishing around 1700 Elmer Kolfin and Marrigje Rikken* In the business of print publishing it was important to pair The topographical series by Schenck Valck and Allard tradition to innovation.1 By the end of the seventeenth cen- were the most important colour publications to appear in tury, there was a longstanding tradition of topographical seventeenth-century Amsterdam.6 Schenck and Valck prints, and the latest invention was intaglio colour printing obtained a privilege on their prints ‘to be made in black or a la poupée.2 Johannes Teyler from Nijmegen was granted a coloured’ on 24 September 1695.7 This probably relates to privilege on it by the States of Holland and West Frisia on two topographical series, of which some copies were 20 February 1688,3 and much of his workshop’s output has printed in colour: Schenck’s Admirandorum Quadruplex survived.4 From 1695 Teyler’s technique was applied for the Spectaculum (1694–1697) and Valck’s Vues et Perspectives production of multi-colour topographical prints by de Loo, Honselarsdyk et Soesdyk, Chateaux et Maisons de Amsterdam publishers, namely Carel Allard, Cornelis Plaisance du Roi de la Grande Bretagne, ausquelles on a Danckerts and the business partners and brothers -in-law ajoûté les veuës des environs de Cleves (dated 1695 on the Petrus Schenck and Gerard Valck.5 title page).8 Allard produced his Tooneel der voornaamste * We would like to thank Ann Jensen Adams, Hans Buijs, Roman Grigoryev, Nadine Orenstein, Femke Speelberg and Pieter Vis for their help. 6 So far, only six artistic colour prints from this period are known. All 1 See C. Rasterhoff, ‘The Fabric of Creativity in the Dutch Republic: were made in Amsterdam. Four were pulled from plates by Abraham Painting and Publishing as Cultural Industries’ (PhD diss., University Blooteling while two others were by Jan van Call. In 1689 Blooteling of Utrecht, 2012), 75–101 (on book publishers) and E. Kolfin, bequeathed his plates to his sister Maria who was married to Gerard ‘Amsterdam, stad van prenten. Amsterdamse prentuitgevers in de Valck; A.D. de Vries, ‘Biografische aanteekeningen betreffende voor- 17de eeuw’, in Gedrukt tot Amsterdam. Amsterdamse prentmakers namelijk Amsterdamsche schilders, plaatsnijders, enz. en hunne en – uitgevers in de Gouden Eeuw, ed. E. Kolfin and J. van Veen verwanten’, Oud Holland 3 (1885), 67; Kleerkoper and Van Stockum, (Zwolle: Waanders; Amsterdam: Museum Het Rembrandthuis, De boekhandel te Amsterdam, 60. The prints are after Anthony van 2011), 30–33 (on print publishers). Dyck, Ecce Homo (H-DF, 6: 110, no. 76); after Jan van Neck, Alpheus 2 The technique itself was older but remained very limited in scope and Arethusa (H-DF 14: 136, no. 80); after Jan van Neck, Diana and and practice until Johannes Teyler professionalised it in the period her Nymphs (H-DF 14: 136, no. 82); after Gerard de Lairesse Hercules 1688–98; A. Stijnman, Engraving and Etching 1400–2000: A History of and Omphale (H-DF 10: 19, no. 83). To this we can add Blooteling’s the Development of Manual Intaglio Printmaking Processes (London: topographical engraving after Abraham Bega of Honselaarsdijk Archetype; Houten: Hes & De Graaf, 2012), 247–48. Palace, originally from 1684 (H-DF 1: 216, no. 117). The prints by Van 3 A. Bredius, ‘Uit de Minute Octrooien der Staten van Holland en Call are six scenes from Virgil’s Bucolica published by Petrus West-Friesland’ in Fr.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kun- Schenck (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, RP-P-1936-24, RP-P-1936-26). stgeschiedenis, 7 vols. (Rotterdam: Van Hengel & Eeltjes, 1877–90), 7: Cornelis de Bruijn had the illustrations for a copy of his Reisen door 154–55. G.Th. Lemmens en J.A. van Beers, Johannes Teyler. de vermaardtse deelen van Klein Asia (Delft: Krooneveld, 1698) and Nederlandse kleurendruk (Nijmegen: Stichting Nijmeegs Museum for a copy of its French translation (1700) printed in colours; Z.C. voor Beeldende Kunsten, 1961), 12. For a revised transcription of the von Uffenbach, Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen, Holland text, see I.H. van Eeghen, ‘Petrus Schenk en zijn “Afbeeldinge der and Engelland, 3 vols. (Ulm, Memmingen: Gaum, 1754), 3: 674–77. voornaamste gebouwen van Amsterdam”’, Jaarboek van het The French copy is kept by the Amsterdam University Library; the Genootschap Amstelodamum, 66 (1974): 117–36. Dutch copy was taken apart long ago. 4 See S. Turner, ‘Opus typo-chromaticum’, this volume, 196–206. See 7 Obreen 1877–1890, 7: 158. The text is not clear on the exact tech- the volumes on Johannes Teyler, compiled by Ad Stijnman, in New nique. It only mentions a ‘privilige for prints and maps (…) in black Hollstein Dutch & Flemish (Ouderkerk aan den IJssel: Sound & or coloured’. Vision, forthcoming 2015). 8 See http://www.kb.nl/bladerboeken/admirandorum-quadruplex 5 Petrus Schenck married Gerard Valck’s sister Agatha in 1673; F.G. Waller, -spectaculum (accessed 18 March 2013). The publication date of Biographisch Woordenboek van Noord Nederlandsche graveurs (The Schenck’s Admirandorum is derived from the dedication to Hague: Nijhoff, 1938), 287. Another publisher who, from c. 1700, inci- Friedrich August I, Duke of Saxony (1670–1733), who reigned from dentally produced à la poupée inked prints was Pieter van den Berghe. 1694 and became August ii, King of Poland in 1697. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi 10.1163/9789004290112_021 208 Kolfin AND Rikken Nederlandse huizen en lusthoven in or shortly after 1697.9 72 prints of the same dimensions, which fall into five Exactly when Danckerts published his plates is not known, groups: an engraved title plate; 19 views along the Rhine; nor is there any indication that he published them as part 25 views of Stadholder-King William iii’s estate Het Loo of a larger series. We shall examine the ways in which and country houses around The Hague; 10 views of The these publishers explored the commercial possibilities of Hague; and 17 of Amsterdam. The chronology of produc- a new technique and address the question why colour tion has not been identified, but, given the explicit refer- printing seems to have been especially popular for topo- ence to colour in the request for a privilege,12 1695 must be graphical prints. Five business strategies will come to the terminus post quem for the colour editions. The title light: product innovation, product differentiation, prod- page indicates that the subjects were selected, designed uct protection, copying and collaboration.10 and etched by Jan van Call,13 whose oeuvre consists of topographical prints, highly detailed drawings, plans and maps. His clear and linear style was well suited for a Petrus Schenck descriptive rendering of architecture and completely dif- ferent from the popular, loosely drawn etchings of Romeyn Schenck Valck and Allard’s shops were situated closely de Hooghe and his followers. together. Between 1690 and 1706 Schenck was at the Van Call cooperated with both Teyler and Schenck so he Beurssluis, just around the corner of Dam square. Valck may have been the link between Teyler’s new technique was only a few steps away on Dam square, at ‘In de wak- and Schenck’s initiative for a colour-printed edition of the keren hont’ (1694–1715). Allard was on Dam square near Admirandorum.14 Van Call, like Teyler, was born in Nijmegen the Beursstraat (1673–1708).11 They also would have and moved to Amsterdam in 1688, where his son Jan was known each other well from the book and print sellers’ baptised on 17 April 1689 with Teyler as witness.15 Between guild. In other words, each knew exactly what the others 1691 and 1692 he left Amsterdam for Rijswijk (near The were doing. Hague), where he probably died in 1706. Teyler lived and Between 1694 and 1697 Schenck published the had a print shop in Huis Te Blotinge (near Rijswijk) from Admirandorum series in both black and white and in c.1693 until 1 May 1696, and it is likely that Van Call collabo- colour, which must have been among the first colour inta- rated with him there.16 At the same time, Van Call main- glio prints to appear in Amsterdam, if not the first. It is tained contact with Schenck and Valck: on 29 July 1705 he likely that the colour edition was the deluxe edition, a declared that he had made a payment to the States of form of product differentiation. The series comprises of Holland and West Frisia on Schenck and Valck’s behalf ‘about eight years ago’,17 probably related to their applica- 9 The description of print no. 16 mentions the peace negotiations tion of a privilege for printing in colour in 1695. at the Royal Palace at Rijswijk that took place from 9 May to Colours were applied to the plates meticulously by an 21 September 1697 and ended the Nine Years War (1688–97); anonymous plate printer. Streets, rocks and soil on the M. Rikken, ‘Vroege kleurendruk in Amsterdam. Een onbekend foreground are mostly inked in brown; blue is used for zeventiende-eeuws plaatwerk van Carel Allard’, De boekenwereld skies, rivers, canals and rooftops; green for foliage and 24.4 (2008), 218–19. The publication dates from before 1706, when Carel Allard handed over his copperplates to his son 12 See note 8. The privilege was granted for 15 years on 24 September Abraham Allard just before he went bankrupt, M.M. Kleerkooper 1695. and W.P. van Stockum, De boekhandel te Amsterdam voor- 13 See P. Vis, ‘Jan van Call (1656–1706)’ (unpublished ma thesis, namelijk in de 17de eeuw. Biografische en geschiedkundige aantek- University of Amsterdam, 2012).