"Description des Castors & de Leur Industrie, des Canots, Habitations, Habillemens, Maniere de Vivre des Sauvages du Canada...", Chatelain, Henry Abraham

This is the famous beaver sheet from Volume Six of Chatelain's mammoth atlas. It contains descriptions and illustrations of beavers and their industry, and of the canoes, dwellings, hunting, fishing, clothes, customs and writing of the Canadian Native Americans. The part of the text entitled Amors & mariages des sauvages details how the prospective groom would woo his bride, which is also illustrated above. The large and pointy-toothed beaver is recognizable in later cartouches by Robert de Vaugondy, Santini and others.

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Condition: A

A crisp impression, issued folding on paper with a Strasbourg bend and lily watermark. There is one tiny worm hole in the image, only visible when held to light, and a few faint spots of foxing confined to the blank margins.