China · 18th century
€ 360
One of a kind: this is the sheet in the photographs. Ships from Langweer, the Netherlands.
Original handtinted copper engraving with title: 'Cortege d'un Viceroy tout les fois qu'il sort de son palais'.
Translate in English: 'Procession of a Viceroy whenever he leaves his palace'.
Source: 'Geographique de l'Empire de la Chine' by J.B. du Halde, Paris, 1735.
From the first edition of Du Halde's comprehensive account of the geography, history and culture of the Chinese Empire. Du Halde, a Paris Jesuit, was responsible for the publication of the letters from the missionaries in China, and he used those as the basis for this monumental work, along with maps commissioned from the royal geographer D'Anville. It was dedicated to Louis XV, the patron of the French Jesuit mission to China.
Its success as an account of (mostly) first-hand reports of contemporary China resulted in the pirated edition printed in The Hague in 1736, followed by numerous translations in the following years.
