(Allard, Carel, and Scherm, Laurens, engravers)
‘T lust-hof van zyn Britannische Majesteit Willem de Deerde op ‘T Loo, beneffens de voornamste gezichten, daar in begreepen (title also given in French, thus : Representations au naturel de Loo, maison de plaisance de Sa Majesté Britannique Guillaume III, avec les principales veües qui s’y trouvent).
Amsterdam, Carel Allard nd (but before March 1702).
Full Description
Oblong 4to. Printed title leaf in red and black, (16) engraved plates. Early eighteenth century marbled wrappers, defective at spine. Slight creasing towards top outer corner and some minor browning, mainly at outer margins. Eighteenth century inked ownership stamp on right hand edge of title leaf, comprising initials C.L.v.G.P. surmounted by a coronet.
A rare suite of engraved views of the exterior and gardens of Het Loo, William III’s summer palace near Appeldoorn in the Netherlands, built to designs by the architect Jacob Roman in the mid 1680s before William’s accession to the British throne. The layout of the elaborate formal gardens seems to have been finalised by 1692 and a date for the engravings between then and William III’s death in March 1702 is divinable (the fact that the avenues in the garden are shown fully grown may indeed point to a preciser date towards the end of his reign). Although all the engravings carry Allard’s name, at least eight of them also carry, more faintly engraved or partly erased, the name as engraver of Laurens Scherm, an Amsterdam-based contemporary, and it seems probable that it was Scherm who was responsible for the original engraved images. Not in Berlin Cat or BAL Cat.