Adrien Hubert Brue was probably the finest French map maker working during the First Restoration. He lived an adventurous life, enlisting on numerous ships at the very young age 12 and taking part on the Baudin Expedition to Australia at the age of 14. He must have been inspired by his experiences as in 1820, he published his Grand Atlas Universel, a fine world atlas distinguished by its use of a method of engraving which he called "cartes encyprototypes"; using this method, he directly drew his maps onto copper plates before engraving them. He claimed that this allowed him a degree of accuracy and clarity lacking in other maps of the period. His atlas was successful, remaining in print long after his death during a cholera epidemic in 1834.



This is Brue's four sheet wall map of the world engraved in 1816 and is centered on the Pacific. It bears the accolade of being one of the earliest maps of the world to bear the results to Lewis and Clark's expedition in the Pacific Northwest of North America after the much delayed publication of their report in 1814. In the same region, Vancouver's discoveries are documented, including modern Vancouver Island, here named "Isle Quadra et de Vancouver", to commemorate the meeting between Captain George Vancouver and the Spanish governor of the Nootka settlement, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra during the Nootka Crisis. Although the Crisis was not resolved, the meeting was cordial and the two men parted on friendly terms.



Brue must have sourced several English maps as much of its geography bears the information and characteristics of the cartography of that nation. These include the claim of the English to the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest and the naming of the Mountains of Kong and the Mountains of the Moon in Central Africa.



The North Atlantic and North Pacific show several purported and mysterious coastlines including New Siberia, discovered by Yakov Sannikov in 1810; another vast coastline is shown northwest of Spitsbergen or modern Svalbard, labelled "Côte vue par Gilles 1707" or the mysterious Giles Land named after Cornelis Giles; this coastline would appear in numerous locations on many 19th century maps with its nature finally being established as Kvitoya, an island 100km east of Svalbard. Another coastline, this time unnamed, is placed north of the Behring Straits. Greenland is mapped in the orthodox manner for the period, with its north coast undetermined but perceived as part of the Canadian mainland.



The Pacific region is extremely accurate for the period; this is not surprising bearing in mind Brue's participation in Baudin's expedition. His outline of Australia has incorporated the information from both Matthew Flinders and Baudin, although it does stop short of calling Nouvelle Holland (New Holland) Australia as advocated by Flinders. His depiction of New Zealand is also unusual, distinguished from many other contemporary maps by his early use of the native Maori names for the islands; this was a custom that rapidly proliferated through 19th century cartography, being used extensively by many French and English cartographers.



This map shows few political boundaries, Brue being more concerned with the physical and topographical details of the world. Large areas are labelled, such as the continents, the Chinese Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire. Individual countries are named if deemed of significance but rarely defined, supporting Brue's claim that his main aim was to portray new discoveries, regions yet to be explored and the physical features of the world.


The example for sale is in original hand colour.



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