About this sheet
The department of the Sarthe, the greater part of the old province of Maine, with Le Mans at its centre and the rivers Sarthe, Huisne and Loir drawn across it. Beaumont, Ballon, Montmirail, La Suze, Noyen, Durtal, Pontvallain and Chateau du Loir are all named, with the forest of Vibraye shaded, and the neighbouring departments of the Orne, the Mayenne and the Indre-et-Loire lettered around the edge. The sheet carries an engraved portrait of Denizot, the jurist, identified on the plate as a native of Le Mans. The Sarthe is good hunting for anyone tracing a family through Maine, and the plate is a clean and readable example of the series.
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 light toning, a few small spots and faint edge soiling confined to the margins; the image itself 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.
