Rare Map of the Day: "Mappe-monde Geo-Hydrographique ou Description Generale de Globe Terrestre et Aquatique en Deux Plans-Hemispheres, . . ." Louis Brion de la Tour, after Alexis-Hubert Jaillot, 1782

JAILLOT'S EXCEPTIONAL DOUBLE-HEMISPHERE MAP OF THE WORLD

Louis Brion de la Tour, after Alexis-Hubert Jaillot

"Mappe-monde Geo-Hydrographique ou Description Generale de Globe Terrestre et Aquatique en Deux Plans-Hemispheres, . . ."

"Engraving with original hand-color"

Framed size: 48” x 66 1/4”

Published in Paris, 1782.

The Frenchman Alexis-Hubert Jaillot (1632-1712) was born in the small hamlet of Avignon in Franche Comte. In 1657 he traveled to Paris with his brother Simon and found employment as a sculptor. He was fortunate to meet the Flemish engraver Nicolas Berey, the publisher and mapmaker to the Queen. His subsequent marriage to Jeanne Berey resulted in Jaillot joining his father-in-law in trade.

Much of Jaillot's work depended on the maps of his predecessor, Nicolas Sanson (1600-1667), the greatest French map-maker of his generation and the founder of the French School of Geography. The great fire of 1672 destroyed the Blaeu mapmaking empire in Holland and Jaillot quickly acted to fill the gap now left in the market. Near 1670, Sanson's sons entered into collaboration with Jaillot to produce the monumental Atlas Nouveau, which included enlarged and embellished renderings of Sanson's magnificent maps. Jaillot's efforts awarded him the title of Royal Geographer by Louis XIV.

Louis Brion de La Tour (1756-1823) was an engineer who held the post of Ingenieur-Geographe du Roi. Along with atlases he published several statistical studies. Some of his most important works are the Atlas General published in 1766 and Cartes des Places Fortes et des Principaux Ports des Isles Britanniques issued in 1756. The featured map is based on Sanson's 1695 world map bearing the same title, which Jaillot subsequently re-published and augmented. De la Tour’s update features the discoveries of Captain Cook: his world-winding voyages are delineated and distinguished by color (blue, green and yellow). The inclusion of this information is not surprising: works describing Cook’s voyages were incredibly popular, selling out as soon as they were released. A textual inscription referring to Cook's gruesome death in 1779 hovers over the Sandwich Islands on the Pacific.

The combination of three generations worth of effort by France’s most renowned cartographers, especially on such a grand scale (the map’s size spanning well over 4 feet) with exceptional original color make Mapple-monde an exemplary and highly collectable work.

Offered at $75,000

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