America

The Van Keulen family was among the most important publishers of nautical charts and atlases in the Dutch Republic.

The firm In de Gekroonde Lootsman (In the Crowned Pilot) was founded in 1678 by Johannes van Keulen I, who soon secured exclusive government privileges for the publication of sea atlases and pilot guides.

His major works included the Zee Atlas (1679) and the multi-part pilot guide De Nieuwe lichtende Zee-fakkel(The New Shining Sea Torch), issued in successive parts from 1680 onward.

This allegorical title page was conceived for Vol. 4 of the Zee-Fakkel, which covers the navigation of North America and the Caribbean.

It depicts the personification of America, accompanied by allegories of navigation and maritime commerce, while figures from classical antiquity present goods symbolising overseas trade.

The composition is signed by Jan Luyken as both designer and etcher.

As Luyken, who executed most of the Van Keulen title pages, died in 1712, the engraving itself must predate that year.

On stylistic and documentary grounds, the plate can be attributed to c.1684, corresponding to the first publication of Zee-Fakkel Vol. 4 under Johannes van Keulen I.

The presence of a later date and dedication indicates a reissued or altered state of an earlier plate rather than a newly engraved title page.

The sheet thus represents an unrecorded or previously unrecognised state within the Van Keulen title-page corpus and illustrates the firm’s practice of reusing and adapting engraved plates across generations.