Philippe Vandermaelen
Western Iran, 1827
18 ½ x 19 ½ in
47 x 49 cm
47 x 49 cm
MEAST3563
Asie - Partie de la Perse. No. 65 Early and detailed lithographic map of Western Iran, which centres on Isfahan and extends north to show Tehran and part of...
Asie - Partie de la Perse. No. 65
Early and detailed lithographic map of Western Iran, which centres on Isfahan and extends north to show Tehran and part of the Alborz ("Elhurz") Mountain range. The map traces east across the salt deserts to show the city of Yazd ("Yezd"). In the south, a section of the Zagros Mountains. The map stops shy of the coastline of the Persian Gulf, showing the mouth of the Kārūn ("Karoun") River on the border with Iraq.
Across the map, annotations about the terrain and seasonal rains. There is one note about Shah Abbas (1571-1629) who is also known as "Abbas the Great" - a 16th Century Shah (king) or Iran. The notation translates to say that he "sought to unite the waters of the Zāyandé-Rūd and Karun [rivers]".
Philippe Vandermaelen
Philippe Vandermaelen was born in Brussels in 1795 and, at the age of 21, inherited a fortune from his father who had been a successful soap manufacturer. Financially independent, Vandermaelen was able to devote his life to the study of geography and in 1829 he founded a geographical institute in Brussels.
Vandermaelen's most important work, entitled "Atlas Universel", was an enormous atlas consisting of over 400 separate map sheets covering the world on the huge scale of 1:1,6 million. Each map sheet was designed using a special projection so that, if the owner of the maps so wished, they could all be joined together to form a globe with a diameter of 7.75 meters (This globe was actually built in Vandermaelen's institute in Brussels). The map sheets were printed using the process of lithography, which was an early use of this printing method for map making, and were then usually delicately hand coloured to emphasise boundaries and outlines. The complete atlas took only 3 years to make, a very short time for such a large project, and it was sold in instalments over a two year period from 1825.
Examples of Vandermaelen's map sheets are of great interest to the collector for a number of reasons. Firstly their large scale. The sections depict many of the remoter regions of the world on a scale previously unknown or unattainable. Particularly for the collector of Americana and Australasia, the sheets covering the western United States and Pacific respectively, where exploration was still in very early stages, are unique in this respect. Their historical insets, descriptions and statistics, along with their great visual clarity, make Vandermaelen's maps fascinating and valuable antique documents which also have superb visual appeal.
Original hand colour. [MEAST3563]
Early and detailed lithographic map of Western Iran, which centres on Isfahan and extends north to show Tehran and part of the Alborz ("Elhurz") Mountain range. The map traces east across the salt deserts to show the city of Yazd ("Yezd"). In the south, a section of the Zagros Mountains. The map stops shy of the coastline of the Persian Gulf, showing the mouth of the Kārūn ("Karoun") River on the border with Iraq.
Across the map, annotations about the terrain and seasonal rains. There is one note about Shah Abbas (1571-1629) who is also known as "Abbas the Great" - a 16th Century Shah (king) or Iran. The notation translates to say that he "sought to unite the waters of the Zāyandé-Rūd and Karun [rivers]".
Philippe Vandermaelen
Philippe Vandermaelen was born in Brussels in 1795 and, at the age of 21, inherited a fortune from his father who had been a successful soap manufacturer. Financially independent, Vandermaelen was able to devote his life to the study of geography and in 1829 he founded a geographical institute in Brussels.
Vandermaelen's most important work, entitled "Atlas Universel", was an enormous atlas consisting of over 400 separate map sheets covering the world on the huge scale of 1:1,6 million. Each map sheet was designed using a special projection so that, if the owner of the maps so wished, they could all be joined together to form a globe with a diameter of 7.75 meters (This globe was actually built in Vandermaelen's institute in Brussels). The map sheets were printed using the process of lithography, which was an early use of this printing method for map making, and were then usually delicately hand coloured to emphasise boundaries and outlines. The complete atlas took only 3 years to make, a very short time for such a large project, and it was sold in instalments over a two year period from 1825.
Examples of Vandermaelen's map sheets are of great interest to the collector for a number of reasons. Firstly their large scale. The sections depict many of the remoter regions of the world on a scale previously unknown or unattainable. Particularly for the collector of Americana and Australasia, the sheets covering the western United States and Pacific respectively, where exploration was still in very early stages, are unique in this respect. Their historical insets, descriptions and statistics, along with their great visual clarity, make Vandermaelen's maps fascinating and valuable antique documents which also have superb visual appeal.
Original hand colour. [MEAST3563]
