• Title : La Russie Blanche ou Moscovie Divisee Suivant l'Estendue Des Royaumes Duches...1717
• Ref #:  50679
• Size: 28 1/2in x 21in (720mm x 535mm)
• Date : 1717
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description: 
This large, beautifully hand coloured original antique map of European Russia by Alexis Hubert Jaillot - after Nicolas Sanson - was engraved in 1717 - the date is engraved in the scale cartouche.
Beautifully presented Jaillot map, fantastic colour, clean and heavy paper and a deep clear impression, signifying an early pressing.

Background: It is scarcely necessary to look at a map of Russia - with which we must include Siberia - to visualize the daunting task facing Russian map makers. Indeed, considering the vastness of their territory and the lack of skilled cartographers, it is surprising that relatively good maps were available for engraving and printing in most of the well known sixteenth and seventeenth century atlases. Generally, maps of that time were based on material brought back from Moscow by visitors from the West. 

After Nicolas Sanson, Hubert Jaillot and Pierre Duval were the most important French cartographers of the seventeenth centuries. Jaillot, originally a sculptor, became interested in geography after his marriage to the daughter of Nicolas Berey (1606-65), a famous map colourist, and went into partnership in Paris with Sanson's sons. There, from about 1669, he undertook the re-engraving, enlarging and re-publishing of the Sanson maps in sheet form and in atlases, sparing no effort to fill the gap in the map trade left by the destruction of Blaeu's printing establishment in Amsterdam in 1672. Many of his maps were printed in Amsterdam (by Pierre Mortier) as well as in Paris. One of his most important works was a magnificent sea atlas, Le Neptune François, published in 1693 and compiled in co-operation with J D Cassini. This was re-published shortly afterwards by Pierre Mortier in Amsterdam with French, Dutch and English texts, the charts having been re-engraved. Eventually, after half a century, most of the plates were used again as the basis for a revised issue published by J N Bellin in 1753.(Ref: Tooley; M&B)

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Yellow, green, red, brown.
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 28 1/2in x 21in (720mm x 535mm)
Plate size: - 26in x 18 1/2in (660mm x 470mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None