Pieter van der Heyden's engraving, "Zomer", 1566

Pieter van der Heyden (aka Pieter Verheijden; Pieter Verheyden; Petrus Ameringius; Petrus a Merica; Petrus Mericinus; Petrus Miricenys; Petrus Miricinus; Petrus Miriginus; Petrus Myricenis) (c1525–1569)

“Zomer” (Summer), 1566, after Jacob Floris the Elder (1524-1581) from the series of 16 engravings (including the title plate), “Compertimentorum Quod vocant Multiplex genus Lepidissimis Historiolis Poetarumque Fabellis Ornatum”, published by Hieronymus Cock (c1510–1570) in Antwerp in 1570.

Engraving on fine laid paper trimmed to the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 6.5 x 10cm.

Lifetime/early impression (based on the print showing no sign of wear to the printing plate and the crisp quality of the lines).

Orn Cat I 81.4 (Irene Margaretha de Groot 1988, “Ornamentprenten in het Rijksprentenkabinet”, Den Haag, Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum Staatsuitgeverij).

The Rijksmuseum offers the following advice about this print and the series of which it is a part:

(Transl.) “Representations of the four seasons: the summer (Ceres). Sheet from series consisting of a title sheet and 15 of the 16 sheets with cartouches with biblical and mythological representations in a frame of scroll and grotesques.”

(http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.409552)

Condition: faultless impression showing no sign of wear to the printing plate, trimmed along the image borderline and laid upon an archival support sheet of millennium quality washi paper. The sheet is in pristine condition for its considerable age (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains, foxing or signs of use).

I am selling this SMALL but important masterwork of early engraving commissioned by the great, Hieronymus Cock, as a part of a pattern book of ornament designs showing use of elaborate frames of strapwork, grotesques and putti surrounding allegorical scenes, for the total cost of [deleted] including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this interesting example of how designers of the 16^th century maintained design harmony, despite a clear joy in creative inventiveness, by using symmetry as an underlying principle—note also how this design is crafted within the convention of colour codes so that dots in the strapwork would be read as gold—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold