Antique Foldable Map of Europe Printed on Cloth. France, 1766

Antique Foldable Map of Europe Printed on Canvas. France, 1766

Magnificent antique map of Europe, printed in color in France in 1766. The map is an original from that period and is printed on canvas mounted on cardboard. The canvas is glued to six rectangular pieces of cardboard of identical size; this arrangement allows the map to be folded easily, reducing it to one-sixth of its original size. The map is very well preserved and showcases all the charm of original antique cartography. It has no tears or missing material and remains complete and beautiful despite being over two centuries old.

The map is surrounded by a beautiful full-color printed border that replicates a gilded frame with flowers, moldings, and garlands. The European countries are clearly delineated by colored borders and identified with their names from that era in French. Thus, we find arrangements that have long since disappeared, such as the fact that Greece did not exist as a country but was part of Hungarian territory. Rivers and lakes are marked in blue, and the surface is crisscrossed by lines representing parallels and meridians.

The map features three legends, written in French in an elegant cursive script. At the bottom, in the center of the frame, there is an inscription with the name of the establishment that published the map: Chez Defnos, Ingenieur Geogr. Pour les Globes et Spheres. Below the inscription, the year 1764 is printed. In the lower right corner is a legend describing the map, which also notes the involvement of another engineer-geographer, M. Brion, in its creation, as well as the year it was drawn: 1766. Finally, in the upper right corner, a legend describes the conversion between degrees of latitude and leagues.

This 18th-century map is a beautiful and original piece that deserves a place in a major museum dedicated to cartography.

Dimensions: Width: 18.5 cm. Height: 12 cm.