Catalog Archive
Auction 131, Lot 788

"Tartaria sive Magni Chami Imperium", Jansson, Jan

Subject: Northern Asia

Period: 1653 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
19.6 x 15 inches
49.8 x 38.1 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

This great map of Tartaria covers all of eastern Asia between the Caspian Sea and northern China and Manchuria. Being one of the most remote regions of Asia, it was among the last to be properly explored and mapped. This map combines the knowledge obtained by the English and Dutch explorers as far as the Ob River with the balance of the map based on the reports of Marco Polo and the Greek classics. The deserts are filled with a wild assortment of devils and dragons, being held at bay from China by the Great Wall. Explorers flank the distance scale and the title is symbolically engraved onto the saddle blanket of a camel, representing the trade over the Silk Road. This map is nearly identical to Blaeu's map of the same title, but does not have a scale across the top. Dutch text on verso.

References:

Condition: B+

Some show through of the text on verso, else very good.

Estimate: $400 - $500

Sold for: $300

Closed on 3/17/2010

Archived