• Title : Carte de L Asie, Divisee En Ses Differents Empires et Royaumes Avec...Dressee par J B Nolin...1830
• Ref #:  93437
• Size: 31in x 22in (790mm x 560mm)
• Date : 1780 (1830)
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This large original hand coloured copper-plate engraved antique map of Asia was engraved and published by Pierre Jean, of the Parisian publishing company Mondhare and Jean in 1830, after the 18th century French cartographer Jean Baptiste Clouet and not Jean Baptiste Nolin jr as noted in the title.
This map is also incredibly rare and I have been unable to find another example sold in the last 25 years.

Since acquiring this large original map, it has been somewhat of an enigma. It is dated 1830 but bears the name of the cartographer J B Nolin, who died in 1790. It was engraved and published by Pierre Jean. But the map bears no cartographical resemblance to any large maps of Asia by Nolin and is also too large to fit into any atlas by Nolin or published by Pierre Jean. This clue finally gave us the answer. The Mondhare and Jean engraving & publishing company were responsible for engraving and printing Jean Baptiste Nolins large world & continental wall maps. And at the same time they were also responsible for the engraving & publishing a series of Wall maps of the world & continents by J B Clouet at the end of the 18th century. These maps are somewhat similar in decoration but are very different in cartographical detail as you can see in the two image comparisons above. This map was published a year after the death of Pierre Jean and we possibly never know it was a mistake or intentional.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 31in x 22in (790mm x 560mm)
Plate size: - 29 1/2in x 21in (750mm x 535mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Very small rust hole in Siberia
Verso: - Bottom centerfold rejoined, no loss

Background:
Cartographically the only apparent difference between this map by Jean and the map by Clouet is the updated cartographical data in the inset map of the Bering Straits and the updated information by the surveying by Captain James Cook and others after the 1780s.

Jean Baptiste Clouet 1729 - 1790 Clouet was a French cartographer and geographer born in Rennes, France. He kept premises in both Paris & Cadiz, Spain and was named Royal Geographer of the Academie des Sciences de Rouen in 1785. One of his main works was Géographie Moderne first issued 1767. In 1788 he was responsible for the design of 5 World & Continental wall maps, engraved and printed by the famous Paris publishers Mondhare & Jean.

Jean Baptiste Nolin Jr 1686–1762, son of JB Nolin 1657 - 1708 carried on publishing his fathers stock after his death, contracting the printing to third party publishing companies.

Mondhare & Jean (active 1759 - 1829)
Louis-Joseph Mondhare (1734 - Paris 1799) & Pierre Jean (1754 - 1829) were prominent Parisian publishers, engravers, print and map sellers who were active in Paris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
In 1784 Jean married the daughter of Mondhare, who formed a partnership with his son in law, changing forming a very successful partnership thereafter as Mondhare & Jean.
After Mondhare retirement in 1796, Jean carried on with the publishing & printing business, having inherited all of the printing plates that also included many map plates from the likes of Nolin, Clouet, D Anville , Delsile and others. Both Mondhare and Jean were responsible for the engraving and printing of the very decorative large wall maps by J B Nolin & J B L Clouet, as well as single plate maps and atlases. Mondares premises were located at Rue St Jacques, à lHôtel Saumur later moving with Jean to 32 Rue Saint-Jean de Beauvais.