Madagascar 1700

Covens and Mortier

€ 1.100

Inter-Antiquariaat Mefferdt & De Jonge

• About the artwork
  PIRATE HAVEN MADAGASCAR “Carte Particuliere de l'Isle Dauphine ou Madagascar et St. Laurens”, copper engraving on two sheets published by Pieter Mortier in Amsterdam approx. 1700. With original hand coluring. Size: 56,2 x 85,1 cm. A large chart of Madagascar, including the islands of Isle De Bourbon ou de Mascaregne [Mauritius], Santa Apolonia [Réunion], Isle De Ioan de Lisboa [perhaps the island of Rodrigues] and Isles de Comorre [Comoro Islands]. In lower left hand corner an inset map of the bay of Saint Augustin on Madagascar. Madagascar itself shows a place called Masalagem Nova where the Portuguese from Mozambique trade their wines and fruits. The map was published in Pieter Mortier's monumental three-part sea-atlas, 'Le Neptune François'. The first part was a counterfeit of a French original; the second part, the 'Atlas Maritime' contained charts engraved by Romeijn de Hooghe, including the famous chart of the Mediterranean; the third, the 'Suite de Neptune François', contained charts from Portuguese sources. This chart comes from a full-colour example rather than the usual outline. Of particular interest are the delineations of Antongil Bay and Nosy Boraha [Île Sainte-Marie] in the north east: at the time both were havens for European pirates preying on the East India trade and Mughal treasure ships. The actions of William Kidd, Henry Every, John Bowen and Thomas Tew in the region helped make the period of this chart the golden age of piracy. Price: Euro 1.100,-
• About the artist

  Covens and Mortier (1721 - c. 1862) was an Amsterdam publishing firm, the successor to the extensive publishing empire built by Pierre Mortier (1661 - 1711).

  Covens and Mortier map are often criticized as derivative - but this is not fully the case. Pierre Mortier lived in Paris from 1681 to 1685. There he established close relationships the the greatest French cartographers of the era, including De L'Isle and D'Anville.

  His business model was based upon leveraging Dutch printing technology and sophistication to co-publish state of the art French cartography. Upon Mortier's death in 1711 his firm was taken over by his son, Cornelius Mortier (1699 - 1783). Cornelius married the sister of Johannes Covens (1697 - 1774) in 1721 and, partnering with his brother in law, established the Covens and Mortier firm.

  Under the Covens and Mortier imprint, Cornelius and Johannes continued in Pierre's model of publishing the most up-to-date French works with permission. They quickly became one of the largest and most prolific Dutch publishing concerns of the 18th century.

  The firm and its successors published thousands of maps over a 120 year period from 1721 to the mid-1800s. During their long lifespan the Covens and Mortier firm published as Covens and Mortier (1721 - 1778), J. Covens and Son (1778 - 94) and Mortier, Covens and Son (1794 - c. 1862).

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