Allard, Carel (1648-c. 1706).

a luxury composite atlas, one of only three known copies. Other copies are in the University Library at Leiden and the British Library. A remarkable example of the composite atlas, bringing together a well-balanced selection of maps of all parts of the world available at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Composite atlases of this quality are rarely seen on the open market.

This example is almost certainly one of those advertised for sale in the Amsterdamsche Courant of 24 Feb 1707: “An Atlas major with 521 of the best contemporary maps, beautifully illuminated and heightened with gold in three volumes of tortoiseshell and stamped in gold”. This atlas was specially assembled by Abraham Allard, Carel's son: the printed titles are from the Atlas minor, with the “in” cut out replaced with “aj” in manuscript, and the imprint changed from Carel to Abraham. Slips showing the volume number have been pasted to each title. The engraved frontispieces for each volume are from different atlases, the first is by C. Allard, the second by Nicolas Visscher, and the last by Abraham Allard.

The Allard family ran a prolific publishing business in Amsterdam in the second half of the seventeenth century. Most of their publications consisted of atlases made up of maps and town plans by their more famous predecessors; the 520 maps in the present copy represent the works of the Allard family (67), the Blaeu family (65), Janssonius and his heirs (14), Mortier (19), Valk and Schenk (individually and together, 100), Visscher (80), de Wit (29), unsigned maps by Blaeu and Janssonius (120), and others by Danckerts, Hondius, Ortelius, Mercator and others.

Twenty nine maps relate to the Americas, including the famous map of New Netherlands by Allard (third state).