Claas Bruin (1671–1732), with illustrations by Anna Folkema (1695–1768) and others.

Dichtmaatige gedachten over honderdvyfenvyftig bybelsche printverbeeldingen.

Amsterdam, Marten Schagen, 1727.

8vo (16.5 × 11 cm). [14], 313, [5] pp. With an engraved allegorical frontispiece, an engraved vignette on the letterpress title, and 155 copperplate illustrations in the text. Collated and complete.

Vellum over boards, spine lettered in manuscript.

               A richly illustrated Amsterdam picture Bible with signed engravings by Anna Folkema, whose contribution probably extended beyond the nine prints identified in the literature. Its 155 biblical scenes accompany scriptural passages and verse meditations by Claas Bruin. One engraving in this copy bears her full signature: Anna Folkema fecit.

Publisher Marten Schagen acquired damaged copperplates from Cornelis II Danckerts’s seventeenth-century biblical series, whose compositions derive from Matthäus Merian. Folkema was engaged to renew the sequence, engraving nine subjects afresh: five Old Testament scenes and four from the New Testament (Verheggen, 2006, citing Poortman).

Our comparison of digitised Danckerts and Bruin copies shows that six of these nine engravings reverse their models, while three retain their direction with altered details. An unsigned image following Danckerts in the same direction could therefore still have been newly engraved or reworked by Folkema. Together with the damaged condition of Schagen’s printing stock, this suggests a broader commission, probably including repairs and alterations to unsigned plates. Such work easily escapes attribution through successive publications, a difficulty Anna de Haas (2013) emphasises in reconstructing Folkema’s oeuvre.

The volume also incorporates two reused etchings by Casper Luyken and an unattributed replacement of the Death of Absalom. Its illustrations continued to circulate long afterwards: Verheggen records their reuse as devotional and memorial prints in 1801–1803, including signed work by Folkema now in Museum Catharijneconvent.

Condition

Vellum mottled and soiled, with rubbing, surface scratches and wear at the extremities. Paper variably toned, with scattered foxing and small stains; more conspicuous brown staining to the preliminary explanatory leaf and the inner margin of the title-page. Occasional folded corners, including the lower corner of the leaf illustrating Paul’s shipwreck.

References

De Haas, Anna. “Anna en Fopje Folkema, prentenmaaksters in de achttiende eeuw.” De Boekenwereld, vol. 29, 2012–2013, pp. 22–27.

Eeghen, P. van, and J. Ph. van der Kellen. Het werk van Jan en Casper Luyken. Frederik Muller & Co., 1905. Vol. 1, pp. 347 and 355, nos. 1867 and 1874; vol. 2, pp. 751–52, no. 470.

Verheggen, Evelyne M. F. Beelden voor passie en hartstocht: Bid- en devotieprenten in de Noordelijke Nederlanden, 17de en 18de eeuw. Walburg Pers, 2006, pp. 257–58 and 292, note 80.