1787 Delamarche / Vaugondy Map of Asia - fine slipcase

Spectacularly presented.

A spectacularly presented c. 1787 Charles-François Delamarche / Robert de Vaugondy map of Asia. 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

Coverage embraces all of Asia, from the eastern Mediterranean and the Levant to Japan and from the Arctic Circle to Java. Much of the cartography is based on the work of J. B. B. D'Anville, for example, the distinctive square shape of Korea.

Hokkaido (Jedso Gasima) is here correctly mapped as an island but incorrectly attached to a very tenuous mapping of the lower forks of Sakhalin. We see an informed mapping of the Kuril Islands, reflecting the explorations of Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov (Tchirikow), but note that the cartographer was not yet ready to give up on 17th-century notions of 'Terre de la Compagnie' and 'Terre de Gama', both of which are mapped without eastern coastlines. Far to the north, land sighted by Chirikov in 1741, likely an Aleutian Island, is noted.

In Southeast Asia, the cartographer has made a valiant attempt to address the complex river systems and political boundaries. It somewhat correctly breaks out Ava (Burma/Myanmar), Pegu (Burma/Myanmar), Siam (Thailand), Laos, Cambodia, Tonquin (North Vietnam), and Cochinchina (South Vietnam). It also identifies 'Petit Laos', a former tribal kingdom in what is today northwest Vietnam, bordering China. Singapore Strait is named.

In Arabia, the cartographer assigns much of the western Persian Gulf to the Kingdom of Bahrain (Bahrein). It also identifies a neighboring island, Samak, a misunderstanding of the peninsula of Qatar. Other named cities along the Gulf are El Caty (El Catif), Cathema (Ras al-Kahaimah), Mascalat, Calba, Raz Ollima, Mekehoan, and Julphar (Gioloflar).

Publication History and Census

According to Mary Pedley (#376), this map was originally engraved by J. Arrivet for publication by Didier Robert de Vaugondy in 1758, per Library of Congress cataloging. She catalogs four states; this is the fourth, the Charles-François Delamarche edition, published c. 1786-87. It dates to, or slightly post-dates 1787, when Delamarche acquired the Robert de Vaugondy map plates and rights, but must predate the French Revolution (1789 - 1799). There is a state 5 (c. 1792), in which all references to the 'Roi' were excised. Scarce to the market.

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

Pedley, Mary Sponberg, Bel et Utile: The Work of the Robert de Vaugondy Family of Mapmakers, #376, state 4. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Cartes et plans, GE C-80.