BY K. G. BOON Introduction Hercules Segers' etchings, the subject of this book, There is even some internal evidence to support this have been regarded as of the greatest rarity since assumption. On the verso of one of the prints from 1 they were first mentioned in print by Samuel van the Hinloopen collection (Spr 24a; HB 14 a) is an Hoogstraeten. Carl Heinrich von Heinecken, who annotation to the effect that that very impression acquired the Segers prints in Dresden in 1746-56, had been used for a demonstration in the presence noted in his inventory of those years: 'les pieces de of Segers himself. 3 I would not be surprised if this Hercules Zeghers, rares' - a qualification that was annotation were someday to provide the vital clue also applied to them in the inventory of the Leiden to the identity of the original owner of Hinloopen's collection of Pieter Cornel is Baron van Leyden. Segers collection. There are a number of other Probably drawn up before the death of that collector exceptional prints in the collection that likewise in 1788, the inventory speaks of the ten Segers indicate that it was put together with expert landscapes in his possession as 'zeer raer volgens knowledge. At one time it was suggested that Houbraken' (very rare, according to Houbraken). Hinloopen might have bought his collection at the Considering the rarity of Segers etchings, the auction of Rembrandt's goods in 1658.