Antique Map of the Haut-Rhin, Colmar and Marshal Lefebvre, circa 1860

About this sheet

The department of the Haut-Rhin, the southern half of Alsace, running from Selestat and Colmar down through Belfort to the Swiss frontier at Basel, with Neuf-Brisach and Vieux-Brisach facing each other across the Rhine and the ruins of the castle of Bilstein marked in the hills. The sheet carries an engraved portrait of Marshal Francois Joseph Lefebvre, born at Rouffach in the department and made Duke of Danzig by Napoleon. The map shows the Territoire de Belfort still part of the Haut-Rhin, which it ceased to be in 1871 when the rest of the department was annexed to Germany, so the sheet records the pre-war shape of Alsace. A good companion to the Bas-Rhin plate from the same atlas.

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 neighbouring departments hung together makes an attractive run.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with small chips along the upper edge and a few spots in the margins, all well clear of the image, which is clean.

This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.