VOORDUIN, Gerard W.C.

Gezigten uit Neerland's West-Indien, naar de natuur geteekend Amsterdam Frans Buffa and sons [1860-1862] Ref. Landwehr, Books coloured plates, n°465. This book was published in 5 instalments. The drawings were made by Gerard Wernard Catharinus Voorduin (1830-1910), a Dutch lieutenant-commander, who spent six years in Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles. Among the plates possibly the first views on the Jooden-savannahs made by a Dutchman. "The former settlement of Jodensavanne and the cemetery at Cassipora bear a unique testimony and mark an important stage in the Euro-Sephardic (Portuguese) colonization of the Western Hemisphere. Jodensavanne was in the 17th century the largest Jewish settlement in this hemisphere, and its synagogue, of which a ruin remains, is the first of architectural significance in the America and one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere. It is as such a reminder of pioneers of American Judaism" Large folio, typographic title (stains), a splendid series of 10 (of 18) chromolithographic views by Heemskerck van Beest + 2 maps. 1) Suriname Plantaadges Jagtlust and Suzanna's Daal (two views on one plate); 3) Suriname Gouvernements-huis and square at Paramaribo; 4) The Reede of Paramaribo; 5) Post Gelderland and the Jooden Savanna; 6) Jooden Savannah. View of the sijnagoge and cemetery; 7) Suriname An Arowakka Indian camp; 13) Curaçao Caraccas bay; 16) St. Eustatius View of Fort Orange; 17) St. Martin Bay and town; 18) Saba. + Sketch map of the Colony of Suriname + General collection map of the Dutch West Indies possessions. Condition: marginal foxing, offsetting at the verso of the plates, pale dampstaining at 1 map and 1 plate. Loose, no introduction, no cover