ASIAN CONTINENT 1696 NICOLAS DE FER LARGE UNUSUAL ORIIGNAL COPPER ENGRAVED MAP

Description: Striking and highly detailed interesting 1696 Nicolas de Fer's copper engraved poctorial map of north-western part of the Asian Continent. Covers Turkey, north-eastern Russia and surrounding countries. Inset map att he top central side. The map is surrounded by scene fetauring Asian scenes and People. Two decorative cartouches adorn the sheet.

Tha sheet is the top left sheet of a 4-sheets map of the whole Asian Continent.

Date: 1696 ( dated )

Dimension: Paper size approx.: cm 62,8 x 48,3

Condition: Very strong and dark impression on good paper. Paper with chains. Map uncolored. Good margins. Map heavy browned. Map folded. Conditions are as you can see in the images. 

Mapmaker: Nicholas de Fer (1646 - October 25, 1720) was a French cartographer and publisher, the son of cartographer Antoine de Fer. He apprenticed with the Paris engraver Louis Spirinx, producing his first map, of the Canal du Midi, at 23. When his father died in June of 1673 he took over the family engraving business and established himself on Quai de L'Horloge, Paris, as an engraver, cartographer, and map publisher. De Fer was a prolific cartographer with over 600 maps and atlases to his credit. De Fer's work, though replete with geographical errors, earned a large following because of its considerable decorative appeal. In the late 17th century, De Fer's fame culminated in his appointment as Geographe de le Dauphin, a position that offered him unprecedented access to the most up to date cartographic information. This was a partner position to another simultaneously held by the more scientific geographer Guillaume De L'Isle, Premier Geograph de Roi. Despite very different cartographic approaches, De L'Isle and De Fer seem to have stepped carefully around one another and were rarely publicly at odds. Upon his death of old age in 1720, Nicolas was succeeded by two of his sons-in-law, who also happened to be brothers, Guillaume Danet (who had married his daughter Marguerite-Geneviève De Fer), and Jacques-François Bénard (Besnard) Danet (husband of Marie-Anne De Fer), and their heirs, who continued to publish under the De Fer imprint until about 1760. It is of note that part of the De Fer legacy also passed to the engraver Remi Rircher, who married De Fer's third daughter, but Richer had little interest in the business and sold his share to the Danet brothers in 1721.