It is not often I come across pieces which are extremely old but this past week I did. They are a set of six small maps of Scotland with their written description on the back. Nowadays they are known as ‘miniature speeds’. This set of six is done by artist #PietervandenKeere. The name which appears on the maps is ‘Petrus Kerius’.

Van den Keere (1571-1646) was a Flemish engraver, publisher and globe maker. He spent the best part of his working life in England.

Van den Keere produced 44 #miniaturemap plates of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland around 1599. Drawn from already existing maps van den Keere miniaturised them. The coinciding text was taken from the full size atlas produced by #JohnSpeed. The mini version appeared in 1617 with adjacent Latin text. The English version was published in 1627.

I will not include images of the versos which display the text but do mote the date on map #56. It really does read 1599. The maps were pressed from the original plates created in 1599 but these were published in 1627 since they have English on the back.

A nice set, well mounted and framed (glass two sides) to show recto and verso of page.