In 1649, Flemish painter and engraver Frederik Bouttats the elder engraved a portrait of Hendrik Hondius I (1573 – 1650), a relation of the famous cartographic family and an engraver of his own prints, as well as a very successful publisher. For many years, he was the only publisher of prints in The Hague, employing a staff of professionals to engrave and print much of his output. Over the course of a career lasting more than five decades, Hondius published and sold more than one thousand engravings and etchings of portraits, biblical scenes, landscapes, maps, broadsheets and book illustrations. Many of the prints were political in nature: celebrating the supremacy of the new Dutch Republic and its leaders; or maps depicting Dutch military campaigns, with descriptions of troop movements. Extensive records of Hondius's business survive, and show that many prints could be purchased in editions that were coloured or uncolored, illuminated with gilt and silver, and even printed on silk. Bouttat's portrait of Hondius included in Jan Meyssens' 'Image de divers hommes' (1649).