Beautiful complete print series with an engraved dedication leaf to the owner of the depicted estate, Mr. Cornelis de Jonge van Ellemeet (1646-1721). The 16 numbered engraved plates show the beautiful manor house, which is located in Wassenaar, near The Hague. De Jonge van Ellemeat was General Receiver of the Dutch Republic from 1674-1707, and the post supplied him with high annual revenues, and he could be counted among the richest in the country. In 1680, De Jonge bought the estate of Kruytenbosch and Duinrel, which was to become a part of the landed estates of about 190 hectare (470 acres) around Wassenaar, with most of the land being farmed out. Unlike other country estates, the layout of this park has developed more in breadth than in length, probably because it was located so close to the dunes and thus the North Sea. The park was made up of paths running in a star shape through woods grouped around two meadows. The Duinrel park closely resembles the parks of English country estates around the end of the 17th century. From Coenraad Droste's country-house poem we can learn that at Duinrel things were done on a large scale. His extensive description of the painted ceilings, Chinese lacquer work etc. contrasts freely with the traditional sublimation of the simplicity of country-life.
This suite of prints was published as part four in the series Paradisus oculorum, sive conspectus elegantissimi centum (Amsterdam, Petrus Schenk, 1702), together with print series of The Loo, Dieren, Voorst, Rozendael, and the "Praetorium" of the Swedish King.
The binding is very slightly rubbed along its extremities, the end papers are slightly browned. Otherwise in very good condition. Hollstein XXV, 1243-58; Springer p. 43-4; STCN 304477761 (3 copies); The Anglo-Dutch garden in the age of William and Mary (= Journal of Garden History, 8/2-3 (1988)), pp. 198-9. 203)