Four Sailing Ships on Choppy Seas
Attributed to Robert Willemsz de Baudous Netherlandish
Publisher Hendrick Hondius I Netherlandish
Not on view
This large unpublished engraving seems to depict a British Royal naval vessel accompanying three ships from the Guinea Company on an expedition in Africa. The Guinea Company was a private company founded to trade in Africa for profit. The flag with a cross and a checkered border is associated with this company. The company, active through the seventeenth century, was involved in the trade of gold, redwood as well as enslaved people.
The print was quite likely engraved by Robert de Baudous a Dutch printmaker who created a number of prints of ships in the early 1600s. The publisher Hendrick Hondius I, whose initials "Hh" are inscribed on the sale of the large ship in the center, resided in the port city of Amsterdam in 1603 and during that period he produced a number of prints relating to ships, clearly responding to the marine-interested clientele of the city.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
