“Mare Liberum” 1915 lithograph printed in colour by Dieperink & Co. in Amsterdam after the design by Jan Bertus Heukelom (1875-1965). Size: 53.5 x 76 cm.
In the early 17th century the united kingdom of Spain and Portugal claimed a monopoly on trade with the East Indies. In 1604, after Dutch admiral Jacob van Heemskerck had seized the Portuguese vessel Santa Catarina, the Dutch East India Company asked Hugo Grotius to produce a work legally defending the action on the ground that, by claiming a monopoly on the right of trade, Spain-Portugal had deprived the Dutch of their natural trading rights. The work, De Jure Praedae [“On the Law of Prize and Booty”], remained unpublished during his lifetime, except for one chapter—in which Grotius defends free access to the ocean for all nations—which appeared under the famous title Mare Liberum [“The Freedom of the Seas”] in 1609. The work buttressed the Dutch position in the negotiations regarding the Twelve Years’ Truce concluded that year with Spain and was widely circulated and often reprinted.
This poster was issued in the midst of World War I. The Netherlands was neutral at the time. Presumably they wanted to emphasise that under maritime law, the Netherlands was free to continue trading by sea as it had always done.
Provenance: collection of Martinus Cornelis Sigal (1888 – 1969).
Price: Euro 375,-
