Catalog Archive
Auction 182, Lot 713

"L'Afrique Dressee Selon les Dernieres Relat. et Suivant les Nouvelles Decouvertes dont les Points Principaux sont Placez sur les Observations de Mrs. de l'Academie Royale des Sciences", Fer, Nicolas de

Subject: Africa

Period: 1717 (dated)

Publication: L'Atlas Curieux ou le Monde...

Color: Hand Color

Size:
12.4 x 9.1 inches
31.5 x 23.1 cm
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This handsome little map is a reduced derivative of De Fer's wall map of Africa (1696-98) with its characteristic thickened west coast. Unusual islands appear in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans including a mythical second island of St. Helena. Monomotapa is shown in the south and the southwest coastline is distorted and there is an incorrect placement and shape of the Cape of Good Hope. In Central Africa is a paragraph concerning the origin of the Nile in Abyssinia, however, the two sub-equatorial Ptolemaic lakes are still shown on the map. The map is graced with a decorative dedication to the Dauphin and a title cartouche featuring lime kilns. The map was first published in 1700; this is the third state.

References: Betz #170.3; Norwich #64 (larger version); Pastoureau, FER ID.

Condition: B+

Issued folding, now flattened with light soiling, some foxing at bottom left, and an archivally repaired binding tear that just enters the map border at left. Remargined at right, top, and top left to accommodate framing.

Estimate: $240 - $300

Sold for: $275

Closed on 4/28/2021

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