print;
frontispiece
- Museum number
- 1849,0421.279
- Description
-
Frontispiece: Demonstration of the new fire-engines; fire-fighting scene on the Dam square in Amsterdam with the town hall (now Royal Palace) at left, the Nieuwe Kerk, de Waag and the tower of the old church in right background, fire-fighters in foreground with Jan van der Heyden standing at centre; a smaller image in top centre showing the new fire-engine in detail; after a preparatory drawing by Jan van der Heyden; frontispiece to Jan van der Heyden's "Beschryving der nieuwlijks uitgevonden en geoctrojeerde Slang-Brand-Spuiten" (Amsterdam: 1690). c.1690
Etching and engraving
- Production date
- 1690 (c.)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 485 millimetres
-
Width: 678 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This is the frontispiece to a series of nineteen book-illustrations to Jan van der Heyden's book describing the new fire-engine invented by him "Beschryving der nieuwlijks uitgevonden en geoctrojeerde Slang-Brand-Spuiten", first published in Amsterdam in 1690 by Jan Rieuwertsz.
This frontispiece (inserted as a folding sheet) is bound in a leather volume with nineteen numbered but unsigned plates (Hollstein 1-19 under Jan van der Heyden), six plates in the supplement; all accompanied by explanation in Dutch letterpress. Only the frontispiece is signed with 'J. van Vianen sculpsit' and 'J. van der Heyden delineavit'. Since the other nineteen plates of the 1690 edition are unsigned, it can be assumed that they were all made by Vianen after van der Heyden's drawings of which the BM holds four in its collection. Hollstein attributes the engravings to Jan van der Heyden himself (Hollstein 1-24). The supplement to this publication contains six additional illustrations, of which one is signed 'L. Scherm sculp.'. It can therefore be assumed that they were probably all engraved by Laurens Scherm (four plates described under Scherm, see Hollstein 1-4; five plates described under Jan van der Heyden, see Hollstein 20-24).
For the complete leatherbound album see P&D 157*.b.13 (1849,0421.179-304); the BM also holds loose impressions (see S.5017-5038 and 1986,1213.3). The BM holds two smaller unsigned impressions which were probably used in a later quarto edition; see S.6497-6498.
For a preparatory drawing of the smaller image see 1895,0915.1172; for one of the figures in left foreground see 1861,1109.506. A painting by Jan van der Heyden showing the Dam square with the town hall is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv.no.1337.
Lit.: Peter C. Sutton, 'Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712)', Amsterdam, 2006, pp.74-81.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Beschryving der nieuwlijks uitgevonden en geoctrojeerde Slang-Brand-Spuiten (Amsterdam, 1690)
- Acquisition date
- 1849
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1849,0421.279
