Lot Essay
A number of comparable drawings by this rare Amsterdam artist have been published by Marijn Schapelhouman, Tekeningen van Pieter Jansz., 'Konstig Glasschrijver', in Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, 33, The Hague, 1985, pp. 71-92, and are in the Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam. As Schapelhouman points out, Jansz. was a designer for glass decorations and glass painter, and some of his work in this field has been preserved. Also, more than twenty of his drawings were used for cartouches of maps in Joan Blaeu's Toonneel Der Steden Van De Vereenighde Nederlanden, first published in 1649. He further designed titlepages and illustrations for books. The present lot, which was presumably engraved, would seem to have been intended for the latter.