Zeeburg and Diemerdijk – Jan Wandelaar, 1734-1755

WALL MAP OF THE LAND BETWEEN AMSTERDAM AND WEESP

“Kaarte van alle de Dijkpligtige en eenige Waalpligtige Landen behoorende onder het Hoogheemraadschap van den Zeeburg en Diemerdijk”. Copper engraving made by Jan Wandelaar. Ten sheets mounted on linen, between the original wooden rollers. Published between 1734 and 1755. Colured by a later hand. Size (map) approx. 130 × 182 cm.

No other cartographic work is known by Jan Wandelaar (1690–1759), who drew and subsequently engraved the map. He worked in Amsterdam and is known as a draughtsman, engraver, painter, writer and art collector. It seems unlikely that Wandelaar himself carried out the surveying in the field required for the production of this map. Given its contents, particularly the remarkably precise division into individual plots, including their surface area and the names of their owners, a skilled professional surveyor must have been involved.

At upper right, beneath the protective wings of a sea eagle, are the coats of arms of the twelve dike reeves who held office between 1679 and 1734, duly celebrated by a group of six putti. At lower left, beside a column bearing the coats of arms of the districts belonging to the water board, Neptune appears amid a turbulent sea, while the old Diemer dike is shown with the so-called timber pile screens that protected it.

The former Zuiderzee dikes were commonly defended by such rows of timber piles, intended to protect the embankments against the force of the waves. The system worked satisfactorily until the shipworm began to appear in 1730. The mollusc probably arrived in the hulls of ships and found an ideal habitat in the hundreds of thousands of wooden piles used along Dutch dikes. In November 1732 shipworm damage was discovered in the piling of the Diemerdijk and the dike east of Muiden. By the following summer many of the piles had been completely eaten through. Coating them with train oil, resin and printer’s ink proved ineffective. The need to reconstruct the dike had therefore become urgent.

At lower left, stones and tools lie ready for the work, while a cart loaded with stone is already making its way onto the dike. At lower right the new stone-faced dike, completed in 1737, is depicted.

With its extraordinary wealth of information—both pre-cadastral and topographical, as well as relating to coastal morphology—the map is an exceptionally rich source for historical geography. Former dike breaches are recorded, while the nature of the soil and the depth of the seabed immediately offshore are also indicated, together with dates.

Literature: Marijke Donkersloot-de Vrij “De Vechtstreek. Oude kaarten en de geschiedenis van het landschap”, no. 31.

Price: Euro 5.250,-