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Dimensions: 50 1/4 by 40 1/4 in.; 127.6 by 101cm

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Provenance: PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTOR

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Notes: This previously unpublished canvas is an important addition to Collier's oeuvre in England. It is the prime version of a composition that Collier later repeated on several occasions, and for that reason we can assume one he considered particularly successful. It relates closely to Collier's smaller Still Life of 1698 in the Tate Gallery, Millbank, London.

Collier was probably born in Leiden, but trained in Haarlem as his early works show the influence of Pieter Claesz. and Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne. He was registered as a member of the Guild of St. Luke in 1667-80, and was recorded as living in Amsterdam until his departure to London in May 1693, where he specialized in trompe l'oeil and vanitas still lifes such as the present work. This picture, which clearly dates from this London period, is one of his largest and most sophisticated compositions. The format and size suggest that it may have been a specific commission or possibly produced for a special occasion. Collier chooses to include in this Still Life an edition of the recently published Bucaniers of America. Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin's Bucaniers of America was one of the most popular books of the late seventeenth-century. A classic eyewitness account of pirates, Bucaniers of America went through many editions in Dutch, Spanish, and English. The first edition was published in 1678 and it was translated into English and published in 1684. The terrestial globe in the present work also shows the continent of America, then not often depicted.