Copper-engraved map, hand-colored; 2 uncolored pictorial vignettes, an armorial shield, etc. 38x49 cm. (15x19½").
Second state of Hondius' important map of Virginia, first issued in 1630, with the imprint of Schenk and Valk. The map shows the region surrounding the Chesapeake Bay, very hilly, with depiction at upper left of the interior of a Indian dwelling labeled "Status Regins Powhaten," and at right a native holding a bow, called "Habitus fœminarum in Provincia Sasque fahanougs." Burden notes that "This is Henricus Hondius' derivative of John Smith's highly important map of Virginia, 1612. It is, however, draw from his deceased brother Jodocus' version of 1618. The two had led separate careers for at least ten years and in 1629, upon the death of Jodocus, Willem Blaeu acquired a number of plates from the estate. About thirty of these formed the nucleus of Blaeu's Atlantis Appendix of 1630. This challenge to the atlas of Henricus, which was by now quite dated, stimulated fierce competition between the two houses. The sale of plates must have occurred by 2 March 1630 as a contract of that date survives where Henricus Hondius and his partner Joannes Janssonius, angry at the sale of plates to their competitor, engaged engravers to cut a number of new plates after those of Jodocus within eighteen months so that they could advance their own atlas. The Virginia was one of the first engraved as it appears in Janssonius' Atlantis Appendix of 1630. Attractively engraved it is the only Smith derivative to bear an Indian facing the Chesapeake Bay..." Of this second state, Burden states "Imprint now reads Amstelodami, ex officina apud PET: Schenk, et Ger: Valk. C. Priv:. Longitude and latitude lines appear across the map, and a dotted line indicating the boundary of Virginia has been added." Burden 228, State 2; Tooley, Mapping of America, p.165.