Scarce map of Greece with Stunning Original Colour.

Valk, Gerardium & Leonardum Greece and the Archipelago. "Graecia et Archipelago, divisus in singulares Regiones Macedoniae, Albaniae, Epiri, Thessaliae, Achaiae et Morea; quibus accedunt Insulae Candia, Corcyra, Cephalonia ,Zcintho, Stalimene, Metelino, Chios etc." Amsterdam Valk, Gerard and Leonard c1702
Copper engraved map of Greece and the Archipelago by Gerard and Leonard Valk. Original full wash colour; verso blank.
The map first appeared in Schenk and Valk's "Atlantis Sylloge Compendiosa," c.1702; it shows the whole Greek peninsular and the Aegean with the coast of Asia Minor and the adjoining countries to the North. The territories of Greece and Albania, Macedonia and the Islands with full wash colour. Major towns heightened with red. Good dark impression with bright original full wash colour; occasional offset of colour; two old ink numbers to blank margins.
The maps of Schenk and Valk are famous for their full wash colour, however often the pigments, particularly in the greens deteriorated leading to browning and eventually causing the paper to crack, for this reason it is unusual to see such bright original colour.

Gerard Valck or Gerardus Valk 1652 - 1726; Leonardus Valk 1675-1746

Gerard Valck and his son Leonard were Dutch engravers, globe makers and publishers active in Amsterdam at end of the 17th century; they were in business with Pieter Schenk who was a pupil of Gerard and later married the Valks sister in 1686. Leonard Valck kept the family further united by marrying his first cousin Maria Schenk in 1710.

In 1686 a privilege is granted to Petrus Schenck and Gerardus Valck for the printing & sale of their prints.
The Valck and Schenk families where active as print sellers, publishers and printers of maps, atlases and architectural drawings as well globes. They accquired plates from the stock of Johannes Janssonius and also of Visscher reissuing several maps of Janssonius' "Atlas Novus "from 1683-94 and published an Atlas titled" Nova totius Geographia" in 1702.

The best known of the joint Pieter Schenk & Gerard Valck publications were the second edition of Andreas Cellarius's " Celestial Atlas Harmonia Macrocosmica'" 1708 and an edition of Jan Jansson's "Novus Atlas" entitled the "Atlas Anglois" published in London by David Mortier in 1715.

Pieter Schenck and Gerard Valk's earliest cartographic productions were a number of maps after Nicolas Sanson published in a composite Atlas, "Atlas Contractus or Atlas Minor" c.1696. He also published a further composite Atlas, "Atlantis Sylloge Compendiosa," c.1702.

In 1702 Gerard Valck became a member of the guild of book dealers and was immediately elected leader of the guild. The same year, they bought engraved plates Nicolas Visscher who had died.
In 1709, his son Leonard bought all the plates of Frederik de Wit from his widow .
After the death of Gerard Valck in 1726, his widow and his son Leonard with his cousin Petrus Schennk II continued the business, eventually passing it to Petrus Schenk Jr.
Zacharakis: 3609/2342; Koeman III, p138, Map no 36. 600 by 496mm (23½ by 19½ inches).   ref: 2534  €1000