Tourcaty, Jean François (sold)
Jean François Tourcaty (1763-1793) was a French engraver and playing-card maker. His father and namesake Jean François Tourcaty was also an engraver (active 1734-53) who appears to have had a specialty in Tarot cards. The younger Tourcaty produced a number of engravings of celebrities during the French Revolution, notably Marat and Marie Antoinette.
First Cartographic Celebration of Gustatory France.
Carte Gastronomique de la France.
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This 1809 map of France, beautifully drawn and engraved by Jean François Tourcaty for author Charles Louis Cadet de Gassicourt, is the earliest instance of a carte gastronomique - a map devised not to show its subject country's cities or topography, but to show the foods characteristic to it. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the topic, the map is of France. It presents an open outline map of the country, with simply hachured coastlines. Rivers are shown in order to contextualize the regions and the chief cities but the bulk of the detail shown in the map are attractive pictorial vignettes each region's main produce. These range from the salt pans of the western coasts, fisheries, cattle, fowl (both before and after plucking), wheels of cheeses, and beehives. But overwhelmingly, wine and spirits dominate the map in a multiplicity of vineyards, stills, barrels and bottles. At a glance, one can characterize any one of the regions on the map by what one might find there to eat, in broad variety. (more details)