A magnificent and elegant kussenkast, typical of the Dutch late seventeenth century style. The title-page of the French translation of Lucas Waghenaer's celebrated 'Spieghel der Zeevaerdt' - 'Thresorerie ou cabinet de la routte marinesque' (1600), illustrates just such a cabinet for the display and safe-keeping of the most important atlases, and travel accounts: the perfect metaphor for Waghenaer's own maritime atlas, which was a pioneering synthesis of information gathered from manuscript charts, rutters, ships' logs, all of which he systematized for the first time, illustrated with informative and beautifully engraved charts.

"Waghenaer's work was a milestone in the development of West European navigation. His charts brought together the pictorial silhouettes that had been a standard feature of traditional rutters used by pilots, and combined these with updated coastal outlines. In addition, there were compass roses and lines of navigational direction, as well as soundings to help navigators make their way into ports and havens" (Schilder).