World map 1745

Covens and Mortier

€ 2.250

Inter-Antiquariaat Mefferdt & De Jonge

• About the artwork
  Mappe-Monde Dressé sur les Observations de Mrs. De L'Academie Royale des Sciences et quelques autres et sur les memoires les plus recens Par M. De L'Isle. Copper engraving published by Covens & Mortier in Amsterdam 1745. Coloured by a later hand. Size: 50,8 x 63,5 cm. Guillaume De L'Isle's world map was originally published in 1700 and then revised and republished throughout the 18th century by De L'Isle and by subsequent map publishers. Dutch publishers Covens & Mortier's first version of De L'Isle's map was produced in 1720 adding the seascape with ships on the horizon at the bottom decorated with a second cartouche in the shape of a sea monster with a mermaid, merman and dolphins. They issued a later edition of that map (shown here) in about 1745 with the additional subtitle "Nouvellement corrigée apres les dernieres Decouvertes faites par l'Academie de Petersbough." The map consists of two central hemispheres, eastern and western, surrounded by four smaller polar projections. The right hand projections focus on the Northern Hemisphere while the left hand projections depict the Southern. At top center there is an elaborate decorative cartouche with various allegorical elements depicting the four great continents in female form, from top left: America, Europa, Africa, and Asia. The routes of a number of the most famous explorers of the major oceans of the world are shown from 1542 to approximately 1730, ending with the Russian voyages of Chirikov and Bering. Some of the more noteworthy features of the map includes the Russian explorations along the Northwestern coast of America, Aleutian islands shown in a semi-mythical configuration and attached to a highly conjectural Alaska; Edmund Halley's sighting of Antarctic ice; Bouvet's large Cap de la Circoncision; A depiction of the tracks of François Pelsaert's route from Australia to Java; Carpentaria attached to New Guinea; Abel Tasman's route, along with a depiction of Tasmania, distinctly separate from Australia. The map also retains one of the more curious peninsula depictions of California. Price: Euro2.250,-
• 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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