Hertfordshire – 1645

Name: Hertfordshire – 1645
Brand: The Old Map Company
SKU: MAP-ID-3603

Price range: £35.55 through £59.95

Old Map of Hertfordshire 1645 engraved and published by Joan Blaeu Circa 1645

Transport yourself to the 17th century with a faithful reproduction of Joan Blaeu’s 1645 map of Hertfordshire, originally published in his landmark atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. This masterpiece of Dutch cartography highlights the county’s rolling chalk downs, historical hundreds, bustling coaching towns, and magnificent country estates, embellished with exquisite heraldry and a neoclassical cartouche.

The intricate copperplate linework provides a captivating historical window into the pre-industrial Home Counties, capturing a time when Hertfordshire served as the vital breadbasket and primary northern coaching corridor for the capital. Every detail of the historic shire has been meticulously preserved from the original hand-coloured engraving, guiding the eye past ancient market boroughs and historic royal palaces, down to the winding chalk streams and grand estate parks that powered traditional regional life.

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A stunning certified FINE ART PRINT on heavy textured art paper — not a poster

Direct from the publisher — no middlemen
Printed in-house in Cornwall
Free UK delivery — international shipping available
Produced to meet — and often exceed — museum-quality standards

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small 19.5″ x 14″ medium 24" x 18" large 31" x 24"

Fine Art Map Reproductions – Museum-Quality Printing

Unlike most online offerings, our maps are produced entirely in-house, not outsourced to print-on-demand or drop-shipping services. This allows complete control over quality while offering better value. Each map begins with a high-resolution original, carefully enhanced and printed to order using archival papers and pigment inks for exceptional clarity, depth, and longevity. Every piece is personally overseen — no map leaves our workshop unless it is of a quality we would be proud to display ourselves.

Authentic Old Map Paper & Accurate Colour Reproduction

Paper choice is essential to the authenticity of our maps. We use specially sourced 190gsm paper made in the UK from pure materials and traditionally pressed with natural woollen felts. This process creates a subtle, randomly textured surface that closely resembles an original antique document. Likewise the use of premium quality ink fully saturates the paper, producing remarkable clarity, depth, and historical character. Colour fastness and sharpness will remain good for in excess of 100 years!

Buy Old Maps Online in the UK Today Trading online since 1999

The Old Map Company of Great Britain offers a vast and carefully curated collection of the very finest expertly reproduced vintage maps. Our range includes works by renowned cartographers such as John Speed and Willem Blaeu, covering Scotland, England, and beyond. Free UK courier delivery is included, with EU, USA, and worldwide shipping available at cost and calculated at checkout. If you need assistance, our team is always happy to help you choose the perfect map.

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The Garden of London and Gentry Estates in the Golden Age of European Cartography

This magnificent 1645 map of Hertfordshire stands as an extraordinary monument to the golden age of European cartography, created during a period of intense commercial, intellectual, and artistic competition between the elite printing houses of Amsterdam. Engraved and published by Joan Blaeu for his legendary Atlas Novus, this document represents the absolute pinnacle of copperplate engraving and luxury publishing. While England was internally fractured by the operational chaos and strategic positioning of the First English Civil War—with Hertfordshire operating as a critical defensive barrier for the Parliamentarian Eastern Association—continental masters like Blaeu were gathering, refining, and printing highly sophisticated records of the British landscape. These premium maps were far more than simple geographic guides; they were high-status luxury assets commissioned for the private libraries of European monarchs, merchant princes, and the landed gentry who collected fine art as an explicit symbol of worldly authority.

Blaeu’s depiction of Hertfordshire brilliantly captures the pleasant, undulating topography that defines this historic home county. Stretching from the low chalk ridges of the Chiltern Hills in the north and west to the rich, wooded valleys bordering Middlesex and Essex in the south, the county’s physical layout is presented with breathtaking clarity. By utilizing advanced copperplate techniques, Blaeu’s studio achieved a precision of linework and depth of visual contrast that allowed for an immense density of local nomenclature without cluttering the paper canvas. Every individual church spire, gated manor estate, watermill, and traditional river valley is rendered with its own geographic dignity, preserving a pristine historical record of a Jacobean landscape operating on the absolute cusp of modern agricultural expansion and metropolitan integration.

The Ancient Hundreds and the Heritage of the Northern Coaching Corridors

A defining feature of Blaeu’s Hertfordshire survey is its careful tracking of the county’s ancient administrative divisions, known traditionally as the Hundreds. From Broadwater and Hitchin in the north to Dacorum and Cashio in the west, these ancient boundaries are recorded with great care, allowing modern viewers to understand how the county’s defensive, taxation, and judicial systems were organized centuries ago. The text characters mapping the interior landscapes reveal an agrarian society deeply anchored to its ancient open-field farming systems, rich malting industries, and local manor jurisdictions.

The map forms a striking visual landscape around the central and northern interior, famously described in the seventeenth century as an agricultural paradise feeding the growing appetite of London. Blaeu represents the rolling hills and river valleys using delicate stylized hill profiles, creating a beautiful tactile texture across the paper canvas. This fertile terrain was essential to Hertfordshire’s wealth, hosting massive fields of grain, early watercress beds, and dense timber reserves. Shoppers searching for ancestral roots will find immense satisfaction in identifying the historic market towns and boroughs of the interior, including St Albans, Hitchin, Hertford, Ware, Royston, and Berkhamsted. The spelling variations used by Blaeu’s Dutch engravers offer a fascinating blend of local East Saxon phonetic pronunciations and classical Latin cartographic style, turning the exploration of smaller hamlets into a rewarding journey of historical deduction.

Coaching Hubs, Strategic Estates, and the Winding Chalk Streams

Given its geographic position as the primary northern gateway to London, the transport and estate infrastructure of Hertfordshire receives magnificent emphasis on this print. Blaeu’s engravers decorated the interior with numerous grand estate boundary loops, highlighting the county’s absolute status as a fashionable retreat for the realm’s leading statesmen, courtiers, and wealthy merchants. The intricate lines of the watercourses track the vital chalk streams that shaped regional trade and industry.

The map details the immense regional and historical importance of St Albans, rendered with its prominent abbey architectural features to underscore its position as an ancient urban anchor and strategic hub along the Roman Watling Street. Moving across the landscape, the map traces the critical coaching paths through Ware and Royston along the Old North Road, corridors that saw an immense flow of travelers, livestock, and grain moving south. The gentle paths of the River Lea, the River Colne, and the River Gade are beautifully tracked, illustrating the trade veins that powered the county’s numerous paper and corn mills. Nestled within the landscape are the sprawling, enclosed parklands marking out the grand country seats of the aristocracy, including the early footprints of Hatfield House, Gorhambury, and Theobalds Palace, visually documenting the immense concentration of political power held by dynasties like the Cecils.

The Artistic Anatomy and Heraldic Splendour of the Blaeu Studio

What completely elevates this Joan Blaeu print from a regional geographic survey into a stunning work of gallery art is the magnificent arrangement of decorative and heraldic elements that frame the map. The upper portion of the canvas is adorned with beautifully rendered, high-contrast heraldic crests representing the premium noble titles connected directly to the land. The royal arms of the House of Stuart sit proudly at the top, balanced by the exquisite armorial shields of the historic Earldom of Hertford and the local aristocratic dynasties that held sway over the regional estates. These armorial features were meticulously researched by the Amsterdam workshop to ensure absolute accuracy, serving as both a mark of historical validation and a brilliant marketing masterstroke to secure wealthy British patronage.

The lower margins are anchored by a highly sophisticated neoclassical title cartouche. This architectural frame is flanked by beautifully drawn figures that personify the rural wealth, scholarly tradition, and agrarian heritage of the Hertfordshire people. Figures carrying sheaves of wheat and baskets of local produce stand alongside symbols of architectural success, visually celebrating the economic balance of the county. The scale of miles is nestled within its own dedicated plinth, complete with playful cherubs utilizing brass dividers and surveying chains to ground the artwork in the scientific precision of the age. By keeping all text elements separate from the background graphic layer, this print retains its status as a clean, searchable historical document while delivering the deep visual contrast of a traditional copperplate impression.

Hertfordshire – 1645

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Fine Art Map Reproductions – Museum-Quality Printing

Authentic Old Map Paper & Accurate Colour Reproduction

Buy Old Maps Online in the UK Today Trading online since 1999

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