1674 Jaillot: LAsie divisee.. Map of Asia - Unrecorded Start Price USD 2,500.00 Current Price USD 2,500.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Monday, November 17, 2008 End Time Monday, November 24, 2008 Location New York, NY See more about '1674 Jaillot: LAsie divisee.. Map of Asia - Unrecorded' Description Original copper-plate engraved map of Asia by Alexis-Hubert Jaillot: title at the top: "L'Asia Destinguee en ses Principales Parties Scavoir La Turquie en Asie ... 1674", title in the cartouche: "L'Asia divisee en ses Principales Regions/ et ou se peuvent voir l'estendne des/ ..." Paris, 1674. Printed on four sheets, joined together, with exceptionally large margins. Dimensions of plate-mark: 23" x 34 1/2"; overall dimensions: 30 1/4" x 39". A fine, dark impression on exceptionally heavy paper; a damp stain in the top right margin, not affecting the engraved surface, light foxing, mostly in the margins, also on the right half of the map, some to the edges, particularly the bottom edge right, and the right edge top, a one inch marginal tear on the left edge just above center. An apparent UNRECORDED VARIANT of one of the largest and most impressive atlas maps of the Asian continent. This is a most unusual example. First, to create such large margins, the map is printed on four sheets, rather than the usual two. Second, the map was bound at the left edge, rather than a center-fold stub, resulting what would have been a huge and unwieldy atlas (the remnants of binding on the left bear some examination -- particularly the loose bits of binding thread; this may have involved relatively few maps.) The pattern of worming (there are only a few holes) suggests that map was bound flat rather than folded -- the worming is confined to the left half of the map (one worm hole can be seen in the upper margin, just left of center) if the map had been folded, one would see a symmetrical pattern of worming. Third, there is no example like this in Pastoreau's bibliography of French atlases. The date under the scale cartouche is 1674, which corresponds to Jaillot I A and I B, but 1674 is found also at the end of the top title. In the scale cartouche, there is no "Avec privilege du Roi pour vingt ans" as is found in I A and I B, nor is there the usual attribution of engraver in the title cartouche: "Cordier sculp." Fourth, there are many of what can only be thought of as typos on the present map; for example, in the snippets of title texts quoted above we have "Destinguee" in the overhead title, rather "Distinguee", as it should be; we have "l'estendne" in the cartouche title, rather than "l'estendue" as it should be, and there are many missing accent aigus on the present map as compared to the quoted titles in Pastoreau. Finally, and this is harder to show, I am almost sure that the plates from which these sheets were pulled were engraved by someone other than Cordier, who did most of Jaillot's work (or those employed in Mortier's Amsterdam knock-offs); the work is cruder to my eye. One can conclude that the present map is probably the earliest state of the map yet recorded, and was possibly a proof. In the introduction to the Jaillot section, Pastoreau notes that at the beginning of the Atlas Nouveau project, in March of 1672, Jaillot engaged an engraver - Francois Caumartin - whose name does not appear on any maps. He engaged Louis Cordier as engraver just one month later. Perhaps the present map is the work of Caumartin? In 1674 Jaillot was in dispute with the Sansons, who were under contract to provide geographic information, but who retained rights to review the quality of the resulting maps. As part of the contract the Sansons ceded the Royal privilege to Jaillot. During the dispute, which was adjudicated in 1674, the Sansons appealed to have the privilege removed. Considering that the first edition of the atlas did not appear until 1681, I wonder if the present map was created at the time of the dispute, perhaps even as part of the material submitted to the adjudicator, and that this may explain the absence of the privilege language in its usual place. It does seem certain, in any case that this is a very early impression, possibly by Caumartin, rather than Cordier, and a very great rarity. I welcome comments from readers, whether bidders or not. High bidder pays $15.00 shipping; international at cost. ************************************************************************************************************ Place a Bid!