Subject: Western Africa
Period: 1679 (dated)
Publication: Les Tables et les Cartes de la Geographie Ancienne et Nouvelle...
Color: Hand Color
Size:
21.9 x 13.6 inches
55.6 x 34.5 cm
Handsome map of Western Africa filled with information, much of it spurious, in the Sahara Desert, the Niger River and the coast of Guinea. Of particular interest are several incomplete rivers in the desert regions that appear and then disappear. The map is beautifully engraved with a title cartouche fashioned in the form of an oriental carpet. This is a very unique example published by Sanson subsequent to the dissolution of Sanson and Pierre Mariette's partnership. Mariette's imprint has been erased and replaced with "Chez l'Autheur," although the erasures are still visible. This map was published in Cartes Generales de Toutes les Parties du Monde… under Sanson and Mariette's partnership, and then in Les Tables et les Cartes de la Geographie Ancienne et Nouvelle... in 1692 by Sanson's sons.
References: Pastoureau, SANSON V H.
Condition: A
A crisp impression with contemporary outline color on a sheet with a large coat of arms watermark. There is light toning along the sheet's edges, well away from map image.