Antique Map of Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante and the Saintes, circa 1860

A map of Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles, showing the two wings of the island, Basse-Terre with its mountains and Grande-Terre with its coral limestone, divided by the narrow channel, together with the dependencies: Marie-Galante, Les Saintes with Terre de Haut and Terre de Bas, La Desirade and the Petite Terre islands. Le Moule, Le Petit Bourg, Capesterre, Bouillante, Vieux Fort and the anchorages are named, with the sugar estates marked along the coasts. Caribbean island maps of this date are collected both in the islands themselves and by buyers in France, and Guadeloupe is one of the better known names. A handsome sheet, and an unusual one to find loose.

La France, Nouvel Atlas Illustre des Departements et des Colonies was drawn by Alexandre Vuillemin, ingenieur geographe, and published in Paris by Migeon at 9 rue de la Vieille Monnaie. Vuillemin built each sheet from the official surveys, the Cassini maps, the Depot de la Guerre, the Ponts et Chaussees and the charts of the Marine, and then framed the map with engraved vignettes: a portrait of a figure born in the department, a view of a monument or a ruin, a coat of arms. The result is part atlas and part popular encyclopaedia, and it remains one of the most decorative French departmental series of the nineteenth century.

The plates in this copy show France divided into eighty six departments and the county of Nice still outside the frontier, so the engraving was completed before the annexation of Savoy and Nice in 1860, although Migeon went on issuing the atlas for many years afterwards. The sheets suit a French interior particularly well, and a group of neighboring departments hung together makes an attractive run.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning and a few spots of foxing confined to the margins; the image itself is clean.

This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.