The port of Zaandam situated just north of Amsterdam was famous, in the eighteenth century, for its saw mills and ship building. So renowned for nautical architecture was Zaandam that Tsar Peter the Great, in 1697, spent sometime in the town, during his Grand Embassy. The house where the Tsar lodged, survives to this day.

Andries de Leth (1662-1731) and Hendrik de Leth (1692-1759) were engravers, publishers, and mapmakers working in Amsterdam during the first half of the eighteenth century.