PEI-TANG & PEI-HO RIVERS TAKU FORTS CHINA 1863 DÉPÔT DE LA MARINE ANTIQUE MAP

Description: Striking and highly detailed interesting original lithographic map depicting the Chinese military architecture and defense systems damming the Pei-Tang and Pei-Ho rivers (the area of ​​the famous Taku Forts).
 
Upper Sections (Views and Profiles): Shows the topographical profiles and coastal panoramas of the forts seen from the sea ("View of the city and forts of Pei-Tang..."), with the geometric layout of the rammed earth and brick defensive walls.
 
Middle Section (Vertical Section): Shows a cross-section of the terrain ("Vertical Coupe..."), highlighting the thickness of the fortifications, the water-filled protective ditches, and the slope of the defensive embankments relative to the river level.
 
Lower Section (Croquis and Technical Diagrams): Contains detailed sketches (Figs. 1-7) of the obstacle and river dam systems used by the Chinese to block European warships, such as wooden pilings, submerged chains, bamboo entanglements, and strategic blocking rafts.
 
The work, directed by Lieutenant Félicien de Morrison Pallu and based on documents by Vice Admiral Léonard Charner, documented the Anglo-French expedition to China during the Second Opium War..
 
The map is extracted from the "Atlas de l'Expédition de Chine en 1860", edited by Lieutenant Pallu and published in Paris in 1863 by the Dépôt de la Marine.
 
Date: 1863 ( dated )

Dimensions: Paper size approx.: cm 66,9 x 47,9

Condition: Very strong and dark impression on good paper. Sheet old original colored. Wide margins. Small foxing and browning. Map folded. Conditions are as you can see in the images.

Mapmaker: Dépôt des Cartes et Plans de la Marine (fl. 1720 - present), often called the Dépôt Général de la Marine, was a French hydrographic mapping organization founded in 1720 under Charles-Hercule of Albert de Luynes (1674 - 1734). Much like the U.S. Coast Survey, the British Admiralty, and the Spanish Deposito Hydrografico, the Dépôt was initiated as a storehouse and distribution center of existing nautical and marine charts. Eventually the Dépôt initiated its own mapping activities in an attempt to improve and expand upon existing material. Some of the more prominent cartographers and hydrographers associated with the of Dépôt Générale des Cartes were, Philippe Buache, Jacques-Nicholas Bellin, Giovanni Rizzi-Zannoni, Rigobert Bonne, and Jean Nicolas Buache.