1787 Delamarche / Vaugondy Map of North America and South America - fine slipcase

After the Revolution.

A spectacularly presented c. 1787 Charles-François Delamarche / Robert de Vaugondy map of America. The map reflects the ephemeral political comportment of North America shortly after the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783). In South America, it illustrates the complex balance of territories, missions, and indigenous cultures that, within a decade, would give way to an extended period of conflict, wars of liberation, and civil strife. The beautifully presented map is laid down on unusual patterned linen and set into a fine royal blue slipcase with gold gilt tooling.

A Closer Look

The United States, not labeled as such, extends westward to the Mississippi. Florida and Louisiana are Spanish, reflecting Florida's Second Spanish Period (1784 - 1821) and Spanish Louisiana (1762 - 1801).

The remainder of North America is divided between a conventionally mapped Mexico, including the Santa Fe Missions, and a vast blank region named 'Quivira et Teguaio', reflecting assumed indigenous kingdoms dating to the reports of Coronado and De Soto. Despite the eastern part of the continent being updated to conform with the most recent political situation, the west remains largely unchanged from early Vaugondy editions, reflecting none of Cook's voyages. Delamarche does note the 'Entrée de Martin d'Aguilar', likely the Columbia River, first sighted in 1693.

South America is well-mapped but confounding, suggesting complex political messaging. The 'Amazone' is separated from Brazil, but that nation is here granted full control of the coast as far south as, and including, Montevideo (Uruguay).

Vaugondy was one of the few cartographers to adopt the term Uruguay to refer to the Banda Oriental. The term, originating from the local Guaraní term Urugua'i, meaning 'river of painted birds' or 'river of snails', had long applied to the Uruguay River, which feeds into the Rio de la Plata and acts as the border between modern-day Uruguay and Argentina. During the Spanish Colonial period, the term was used as an alternate colloquial name for the Banda Oriental (Banda Oriental del Río Uruguay), the lands east of the Uruguay River, which served as a buffer zone between La Plata and Portuguese Brazil. Uruguay rarely appeared as a territory on any pre-19th century map, but depicting it as such was an inexplicable convention on most R. de Vaugondy maps as early as the 1760s.

In Guyana, the cartographer does away with Lake Parima, the supposed site of El Dorado as identified by Sir Walter Raleigh, replacing it with Lake Cassipa and eliminating all references to Manoa or El Dorado. Further south, Xarayes, another potential site for El Dorado, is mapped as the source of the Paraguay River.

Publication History and Census

According to Mary Pedley (#20), this map was originally engraved by J. Arrivet and published by Didier Robert de Vaugondy in 1760. She catalogs three states, up to 1778, but does not address any of the subsequent Charles-François Delamarche editions. We believe the current example, bearing the Delamarche imprint, to be state 4. It must post-date 1787, when Delamarche acquired the Robert de Vaugondy map plates and rights, but predate the French Revolution (1789 - 1799), due to references to the King in the title, which were excised from later issues. There is a more common subsequent 5th state in which all references to the 'Roi' are removed and Delamarce is identified as 'Citizen'. We see multiple examples of the 1792 5th state in institutional collections and in market history. All earlier states, including this one, are very scarce. We can find no digitized examples or sale records for this or any of the first 3 Pedley states.

Cartographers

Charles-François Delamarche (August 1740 - October 31, 1817) founded the important and prolific Paris-based Maison Delamarche map publishing firm in the late 18th century. A lawyer by trade, Delamarche entered the map business with the 1787 acquisition from Jean-Baptiste Fortin of Robert de Vaugondy's map plates and copyrights. Delamarche appears to have been of dubious moral character. In 1795, the widow of Didier Robert de Vaugondy, Marie Louise Rosalie Dangy, petitioned a public committee for 1500 livres, which should have been awarded to her deceased husband. However, Delamarche, proclaiming himself Vaugondy's heir, filed a simultaneous petition and walked away with the funds, most of which he was instructed to distribute to Robert de Vaugondy's widow and children. Just a few months later, however, Delamarche proclaimed Marie Dangy deceased, and it is highly unlikely that any funds found their way to Robert de Vaugondy's impoverished daughters. Nonetheless, where Robert de Vaugondy could barely make ends meet as a geographer, Delamarche prospered as a map publisher, acquiring most of the work of earlier generation cartographers Lattre, Bonne, Desnos, and Janvier, thus expanding significantly upon the Robert de Vaugondy stock. Charles Delamarche eventually passed control of the firm to his son Felix Delamarche (c. 1750 - c. 1850) and geographer Charles Dien (1809 - 1870). It was later passed on to Alexandre Delamarche, who revised and reissued several Delamarche publications in the mid-19th century. The firm continued to publish maps and globes until the middle part of the 19th century.   Further Details...

Robert de Vaugondy (fl. c. 1716 - 1786) was a French publishing firm run by Gilles (1688 - 1766) and Didier (c. 1723 - 1786) Robert de Vaugondy. They were map publishers, engravers, and cartographers active in Paris during the mid-18th century. Gilles was the nephew of Pierre Moulard Sanson, and was thus the inheritor of Nicolas Sanson (1600 - 1667), whose stock supplied much of their initial material and whose legacy supplied much of their initial reputation. Graduating from Sanson's maps, Gilles, and more particularly Didier, began to produce their own substantial corpus. The Vaugondys were well-respected for the detail and accuracy of their maps, for which they capitalized on the resources of 18th-century Paris to compile the most accurate and fantasy-free maps possible. The Vaugondys compiled each map based on their own geographic knowledge, scholarly research, journals of contemporary explorers and missionaries, and direct astronomical observation. Moreover, unlike many cartographers of this period, they took pains to reference their sources. Nevertheless, even in 18th-century Paris, geographical knowledge was limited - especially regarding those unexplored portions of the world, including the poles, the Pacific Northwest of America, and the interiors of Africa, Australia, and South America. This gap in knowledge let to divergent geographical approaches, epitomized by the Buache-Vaugondy debates at the French Academie des Sciences - one of the key pivotal moments in the history of modern cartography. Buache, in his Exposé, argued for a Theoretical Geography, which postulated that a systematic and scientific approach could accurately fill in the map in advance of actual exploration. Vaugondy's scathing critique of the Exposé, presented as the Considerations, argued for empirical restraint in cartography, suggesting that unexplored areas should simply be left blank and that mapping itself should rely on documentable current discovery. While Bucahe, with more political acumen and connections, initially came out ahead in the debates, the subsequent decades saw voyages of discovery by Captains James Cook, Jean Francois de Galaup de La Perouse, and George Vancouver disprove most of his map. Nonetheless, by that time, Vaugondy, advanced in age, did not live long enough to see his approach become ascendant. Didier died more celebrated than solvent, and his maps were acquired by Jean-Baptiste Fortin, who in 1787 sold them to Charles-François Delamarche (1740 - 1817). Delamarche, more businessman than cartographer, prospered from the Vaugondy maps, but defrauded Vaugondy's widow, Marie Louise Rosalie Dangy, of her rightful inheritance and may even have killed her.   Further Details...

J. Arrivet (fl. c. 1737 - 1780) was a French engraver/ etcher active in Paris in the late 18th century. He produced work for Robert de Vaugondy, Bellin, Bonne, Lattre, and others. It is possible that he was the same 'Arrivet' who engraved the content for the 1737 Hydrographie Française. He never signed his first name, or initial, but Bénézit assigned to him the first initial 'J', almost certainly Jacques or Jean. He is not the engraver Pierre-Nicolas Arrivet (1766 -????), but may be a relation.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Original linen backing. Folds into tooled royal blue leather slipcase with gilt decoration and titling.

References

c.f. Library of Congress, G3290 178-.R6. Pedley, Mary Sponberg, Bel et Utile: The Work of the Robert de Vaugondy Family of Mapmakers, #20.