1810 Porlier Map of Northern Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin

This is an extremely rare c. 1810 Porlier map of northern Vietnam and southern China. The map depicts the region from Tchely (labeled as the 'Capitale du Pays dans le Yun-nan - most likely Kunming) to Hainan Island and from southern China to the city of Koue-hoe (Hué, Vietnam - the ancient capital of Cochinchina. Parts of Ha Long Bay, the Gulf of Tonkin, and Hainan Island are illustrated, as are the Red River delta and a fair portion of the interior of modern-day Vietnam. Several towns and villages identified, including Tong-tou, labeled as the 'Capitale du Tonquin' this is most likely the modern-day city of Hanoi. Several branches of the Red River are also labeled.

Census and Publication History

We know that a very similar earlier map was compiled from Jesuit sources by Jean Dominique Etienne Canu for publication in Yves Mathurin Marie Treaudet de Querboeuf's Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses. We believe that this map was published in the 1810 edition of Lettres Edifiantes. We have not found any known examples in institutional collections and only one other instance when it has appeared on the private market.