L'Asie

De Fer’s monumental map of Asia was published as part of a set of world and continents which were published between 1694 and 1698.

Nicholas de Fer was born in 1646, the son of Antoine, a map seller. He was trained as an engraver and eventually joined his mother in the family firm after his father’s death in 1673. He became sole owner of the family business in 1687.

He was highly successful, producing multiple maps and atlases. He is regarded as one of the mainstays during a period of unparalleled success for French cartography.

This set of continental wall maps was his flagship project and they went through several issues. He had just gained the patronage of the Dauphin in the early 1690s and no doubt felt that he needed pieces suitable to impress both his new patron and the French aristocracy.

The map is beautifully engraved but geographically lacking in several areas. The Arabian Peninsula is based on de Fer’s own map of the region; the Indian sub-continent is mainly based on Blaeu who in turn bases his shape on that of Linschoten, first published c.1599. It is characterised by the peculiar western twist which is exaggerated on this map. The islands of Japan are oddly undefined, especially as de Fer had access to Jesuit surveys by Martino Martini published in 1655 and in fact he also references further Jesuit surveys by Ferdinand Verbiest on insets on the upper right. The Far East is based on maps by Sanson while the Caspian Sea is undefined. A large inset on the upper part of the map details Polar exploration although the exact nature of Nova Zembla is left undefined.

In the North of Myanmar, the mythical Lake Chiamay “the mother of rivers” is shown as the source of four of the major rivers of South East Asia; this was a standard geographical feature of maps of Asia and the East, which disappeared by the 1760s but speculation about its existence or more about the actual source of the great rivers of the region persisted into the late 19th century.

The most peculiar feature of this map is the large land bridge between Asia and America. De Fer does not go as far as to connect them explicitly but there is a large land mass north of Japan that goes to the edge of the map, partly hidden under one of the insets; above it, the east coast of Asia travels north.

Finally, another highlight of this map are the aesthetics. De Fer employed Johannes van Loon as the engraver for this map. Van Loon had recently arrived from Amsterdam and was perceived as the finest engraver in Paris during this period. The map is surrounded by a series of elaborate scenes showing the inhabitants of Asia, with large text panels describing each region or country. This map is further aided by the addition of panels of rare letter press text with additional descriptions of Asia, engraved in 1696, two years before the issue of the map. The cartouche legitimises the geography by stating that it was provided by the Royal Academy of Sciences and the whole map is dedicated to de Fer’s new patron, the Dauphin.

This example for sale is in particularly good condition for a wall map, in original hand colour.

[AS964]