Antique Map of the Seine et Oise, Versailles, Vuillemin, circa 1860

About this sheet

An antique map of the department of the Seine et Oise, with Versailles as its chef-lieu, drawn by Alexandre Vuillemin and published in Paris by Migeon around 1860. The department was the great ring of country that surrounded Paris on every side, and the map covers Versailles together with Pontoise, Corbeil, Etampes, Rambouillet and Mantes, the Seine and the Oise winding through it and the forests of the Ile-de-France spread between the towns. Few French departments interest buyers more, because this is the landscape of the royal chateaux and of the country houses of Paris, and because the department no longer exists: Seine et Oise was broken up in the reorganisation of the Paris region in 1968 and divided among several new departments, so a map of this date records an administrative unit that has since vanished from the modern atlas. The sheet is a steel engraving with original hand colour, in the decorative departmental format described below. An antique map of the Seine et Oise is an excellent choice for anyone living in the western suburbs of Paris or with a connection to Versailles.

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, scattered small spots and faint 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.