1812 Pluth Map of the East Indies / Southeast Asia

Turbulent Waters.

This is a lovely 1812 Franz Pluth map of southern China and Southeast Asia. It is notable for illustrating islands, islets, and shoals in the South China Sea that have been the site of intense territorial disputes in recent decades.

A Closer Look

Coverage embraces from the Yangtze River in China southwards to Sumatra, Borneo, and the northern tip of Java. Cities, mountains, rivers, the borders of kingdoms (traced in hand-color), islands, and other features are noted throughout. In the ocean, hazards and shoals are also indicated. The map is unusually detailed, particularly in its coverage of the Paracels, Scarborough Shoal, the Macclesfield Bank, and other features in the South China Sea at the heart of present-day territorial disputes.

Turbulent Waters

In recent decades, the South China Sea has been the site of increasingly contentious overlapping territorial disputes involving several nations - most notably China (both the People's Republic and Republic of China/ Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei - over strategically and economically significant maritime areas. Central to these disputes are the Paracel Islands, Scarborough Shoal, and the Macclesfield Bank, all noted here. China claims the Paracel Islands (which it calls the Xisha Islands) and has occupied them all since a 1974 military operation against Vietnam, but Vietnam also asserts sovereignty based on historical administration. The Scarborough Shoal, a small atoll north of the Spratly Islands, is claimed by both China and the Philippines; China has controlled it since a 2012 standoff, despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling in favor of the Philippines that rejected China's sweeping 'nine-dash line' claims; it remains one of the most volatile flashpoints in the Asia-Pacific. The Macclesfield Bank, a large underwater feature northeast of the Spratlys, is also claimed by China as part of its 'Zhongsha Islands,' though, since it is submerged, it should not be subject to sovereign ownership under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Publication History and Census

Though not noted here, this map is generally attributed to the engraver Franz Pluth. It is similar to a map published the previous year by the Weimar Geographisches Institut in Neueste Kunde von Asien, which itself may be based on the eastern half of a two-sheet 1804 map by Johann Christoph Matthias Reinecke published by the Weimar Geographisches Institut (also offered by us, EastIndies-reineckejcm-1804). As the present map lacks a plate or page number, it might have appeared in a composite atlas or a collection of 'pirated' maps based on those of the Geographisches Institut and other leading German map publishers. Pluth's association with Friedrich Ludwig Linder (on his Neueste Länder - und Völkerkunde, published in conjunction with the Geographisches Institut) suggests collaboration rather than plagiarism. Some volumes of early editions of the Neueste Länder - und Völkerkunde have a Prague imprint (see OCLC 41743001), so this map could have also appeared in one of these volumes. In any event, the present Prague printing of this map is only cataloged among the holdings of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in the OCLC and is also held by the Research Library of South Bohemia, with minimal market history.

Cartographer

Franz Pluth (1800 - 1871) was an engraver based in Prague, the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Habsburg Austrian Empire. Pluth was born in Prague and most likely died in Zbraslav. He was active as a map engraver until at least 1848. His work is similar in style to that of Karl Ferdinand Weiland, a prolific German engraver, with whom he may have worked.   Further Details...

Condition

Good. Light wear along original fold lines. Verso repair to a fold separation. Some toning.

References

OCLC 163165329. Research Library of South Bohemia in Ceske BudejoviceShelf/Call number: MA 2.449.