Antique Map of the Vendee, Noirmoutier and the Ruins of Tiffauges, circa 1860

About this sheet

The department of the Vendee, with the bay of Bourgneuf and the island of Noirmoutier at the top of the sheet, the sandy coast running south past Saint-Jean-de-Monts and Les Sables to the marshes at Marans, and the bocage inland around Les Herbiers, Mortagne, Challans and La Chataigneraie. The sheet carries an engraved view of the ruins of the castle of Tiffauges, the stronghold of Gilles de Rais. This is the heartland of the royalist insurrection of 1793 and the names on the map are the names in every account of that war, which gives the plate an audience among French history buyers as well as among people who take their holidays on that coast.

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 minor nicks along the left edge; 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.