China Empire old map Plans de Quelques Bellin 1748
Title: Plans de Quelques Ville de La Province de Hou Quang.
Description: Old antique map of the China Empire with the plans of the villages of Yong Chew Fu, Vu Chang Fu, and Wang Chew Fu in central China.
Original map, copperplate engraved with hand coloring.
Biography: Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 - 1772). Bellin was born in Paris, and entered the Naval Chart and Plan Depot in 1721. He was hydrographer of France's hydrographic office, cartographer and geographer of the Navy. Also member of the French intellectual group called the philosophes (dominated by Voltaire and Montesquieu), and member of the Académie de Marine and of the Royal Society of London. Over a 50 year career, he produced a large number of sea charts, maps, and sea-atlases of the world, e.g., French Neptune (1753), Map of North America (1755), French Hydrography (1756) le Petit Atlas maritime (1764) an collection of maps and plans of the four parts of the world, in five volumes and New method for learning geography (1769). Bellins country and sea maps based on the documents of the Naval Chart Depot were also issued in Histoire générale des voyages (15 vols., Paris, 1746-1759), continued by Father Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles (Abbe Prevost ) and other writers.
Jacques Nicolas Bellin's archives are held at the Montreal archives center of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.
Size: Sheet app.: 36 x 25.5 cm. 14.25 x 10 inches. Image app.: 30 x 20 cm. 11.75 x 9 inches. Condition: View very good, folds as published. Small skillful marginal restoration. A Certificate of Authenticity ( COA ) will be supplied on request.
