New Mexico & Northern New Spain – Enlightenment Map by Rigobert Bonne, c.1780
€ 390
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1780
Sheet size
26 × 41 cm (10.2 × 16.1 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14105-29
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Good antique condition. Light age toning and minor handling wear consistent with 18th-century copperplate engraving. Original centerfold as issued. Clean impression with strong legibility; margins ample for framing.
About this sheet
The northern provinces of New Spain by Rigobert Bonne, circa 1780, an original copper engraving titled "Le Nouveau Mexique avec la Partie Septentrionale de l'Ancien, ou de la Nouvelle Espagne," with the credit "Par Mr. Bonne, Ingénieur Hydrographe de la Marine." It is printed in black without color.
The map spans the Spanish frontier from the Pacific to the Gulf Coast. California is drawn as a peninsula with the Gulf of California running up its east side, and "Mer Pacifique" fills the left margin. New Mexico and the territory of the Apaches occupy the upper left, with the Rio Grande and its tributaries, while "Texas" and "Louisiane" are lettered across the upper right, together with the names of Native peoples such as the Natchitoches, and Florida appears at the right edge. The "Golfe du Mexique" lies below, with the Tropic of Cancer marked, and a small inset of the Yucatán Peninsula is placed at the lower right. Four scale bars in the upper left give Castilian leagues, Spanish leagues, marine leagues and common French leagues.
Bonne was hydrographer to the French navy at the Dépôt de la Marine in Paris, succeeding Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, and the sheet shows how French geographers pictured Spain's northern borderlands in the 1780s, with New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana on one page.
