ORTELIUS, Abraham (1528-1598). Erythraei sive Rubri Maris Periplus, olim ab Arriano descriptus, nunc verò ab Abrah. Ortelio ex eodem delineatus. [Vrintio: Giovanni Bapta [sic], 1608]

The J. Daniels Collection of Sea-Charts, Maps, Prints, and Books Relating to the East Indies John Daniels first visited Indonesia in the early 1970's as an American univeristy student participating in a program of overseas study in Southeast Asian history and culture. His admiration for Indonesia was instant and lasting, after finishing his academic studies he returned to Indonesia in 1977, where he has made his home ever since. Helping to found Indonesia's first cruise company, Spice Island Cruises in 1984, Mr. Daniels has managed to combine happily his vocation with his avocation by exploring many of Indonesia's 17,000 remote islands, bringing small groups of sophisticated travellers to the remote island cultures of the Indonesian Republic. In researching these remote area for visits by his ships, the American found it necesary to gather all the historical and ethnographic material he could on Indonesia - often visiting libraires and private collections in different countries containing books, prints, and early maps of the Dutch East-Indies, in order to learn waht he could of the islands' people and their traditions. Along the way, John Daniels developed a growing knowledge of Indonesian prints, books, and maps, relating to Indonesia. During frequent trips abroad he acquired gradually pieces for his modest personal collection, those of fellow collectors, and for those owned by Pan Nusa Investments Collection, comprised in part by the items offered by Christie's in this sale. The collection on offer corresponds with Mr. John Daniels' admittedly eclectic and wide-ranging admiration of things Indonesian. The current collection on offer has truly 'something for everyone', ranging from small decorative prints depicting various Indonesian cultural groups to the very rare large charts of Java by Van Keulen to colourful scenes of old Batavia taken from Churchill's Voyages published in the early 18th century. Mr. Daniels has had great pleasure in collecting the various sea charts, maps, prints, and books, which has extended his knowledge in different fields. He hopes that these will now embelish other collections and provide similar enjoyment for their new owners. Mr. Daniels lives now in Bali where he continues to oversee the operation of his growing cruise operation. All prints and maps are unframed unless otherwise stated. MAPS AND CHARTS: GENERAL ASIA AND EAST INDIES

Details

ORTELIUS, Abraham (1528-1598). Erythraei sive Rubri Maris Periplus, olim ab Arriano descriptus, nunc verò ab Abrah. Ortelio ex eodem delineatus. [Vrintio: Giovanni Bapta [sic], 1608]

Engraved hand-coloured chart (357 x 460 mm.), with wide margins. The chart covers the Ancient World from the coast of Africa to the East Indies, inset with Southern Italy and Greece in a decorative cartouche, circular insets of the Holy Land and of the North Pole; text in Italian concerning the travels of Ulysses on the reverse. (Vertical centre fold, minor surface dirt.) From the first edition of the Theatrum with Italian text; Koeman Ort 37-8

Lot Essay

C. Koeman in Atlantes Nederlandici, Amsterdam, 1967-71, notes that for the later, Italian, editions of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum and its Addimentum, plates were used which bore dated colophons from the earlier editions. The above chart is dated 1597, and in this form and state appeared in the first Italian edition of 1608. See Koeman Ort 37-8.

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