Map of France in the Form of a Ship; Antique Allegorical Map

This is a museum-grade reproduction of the map of France shown as a ship. The original map was published in London shortly after the French Revolution. The map is a naval metaphor for the Ship of State. It should be noted that the English, still strong monarchists, were in general, appalled by the French Revolution, and sympathized with the fallen monarchy. The English were concerned about the rapid change in affairs in their traditional enemy's government, and what it would portend for them. The cartouche in the lower left reads: "The Kingdom of France is represented under the form of a ship, that, being the arms of Paris, and that City being known on the 13th and 14th of July 1789, by its insurrection, to have given so great a shock to the monarchy, that its influence extended to all the provinces, except those distinguished as land. The Vendeans remaining steadfast in the Royal Cause, and to the present time preferring death to a renunciation of their principles: are supposed, embarked, to recover the lost standard of their ancient Constitution." It is interesting to see how the cartographer transformed the shape of France into a ship, making the revolutionary provinces into parts of the ship, while making the provinces that resisted the revolution into land (Brittany, Gascony, etc.).