Antique Map of the Mouth of the Chiang River by Bellin, 1764

About this sheet

Antique map titled ‘Carte de la Baye d'Hocsieu et des Entrees de la Riviere de Chang, Dans la Province de Fokyen en Chine’. This impressive map or sea chart details the mouth of the Chiang River in the Fujian Province of modern day China. The map covers part of the modern day city of Fuzhou on the southeastern coast of China just west of Taiwan or Formosa. Incredibly detailed, the map notes towns, fortifications, islands, bridges, rivers and mountains with beautifully rendered topography. Several coastal features are noted, included depth soundings throughout, making this a useful map for the mariner. Part of Bellin's "Le Petit atlas maritime". Map retains its natural black and white dark impression.

Artists and Engravers: Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703 - 1772) was one of the most important cartographers of the 18th century. With a career spanning some 50 years, Bellin is best understood as geographe de cabinet and transitional mapmaker spanning the gap between 18th and early 19th century cartographic styles. His long career as Hydrographer and Ingénieur Hydrographe at the French Dépôt des cartes et plans de la Marine resulted in hundreds of high quality nautical charts of practically everywhere in the world. A true child of the Enlightenment Era, Bellin's work focuses on function and accuracy tending in the process to be less decorative than the earlier 17th and 18th century cartographic work. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Bellin was always careful to cite his references and his scholarly corpus consists of over 1400 articles on geography prepared for Diderot's Encyclopedie. Bellin, despite his extraordinary success, may not have enjoyed his work, which is described as "long, unpleasant, and hard." In addition to numerous maps and charts published during his lifetime, many of Bellin's maps were updated (or not) and published posthumously. He was succeeded as Ingénieur Hydrographe by his student, also a prolific and influential cartographer, Rigobert Bonne.

Condition: Excellent. Original plate mark visible. Please study scan carefully.
Date: 1764
Overall size: 25.6 x 32.7 cm
Image size: 18.3 x 23.9 cm

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