Catalog Archive
Auction 183, Lot 77

"Description des Castors & de Leur Industrie, des Canots, Habitations, Habillemens Maniere de Vivre des Sauvages du Canada avec la Maniere dont ils se Marient les Hieroglyphes...", Chatelain, Henry Abraham

Subject: Canada

Period: 1708 (published)

Publication: Atlas Historique

Color: Hand Color

Size:
16.8 x 14.4 inches
42.7 x 36.6 cm
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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.

References:

Condition: A+

A dark impression on a bright, deckle-edged sheet with a Strasbourg Bend & Lily watermark.

Estimate: $240 - $300

Sold for: $190

Closed on 6/9/2021

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