Original map of the southern part of European Russia, Russian Tartary and Little Tartary ("Partie Méridionale de la Russie Européenne, Tartarie Russienne, Petite Tartarie"), engraved on copper with hand-coloured outlines, from the work of Robert de Vaugondy. According to the cartouche, it was revised and corrected by C.F. Delamarche, his successor, in 1806. It stretches from Poland and Ukraine to the Volga and the Caspian Sea, with the Crimea, the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea and Circassia.
Gilles and Didier Robert de Vaugondy, father and son, were renowned eighteenth-century cartographers, descendants of the cartographer Nicolas Sanson, from whom they inherited much of their cartographic material. In 1757 they published their most famous work, the Atlas Universel, and in 1760 Didier Robert de Vaugondy was appointed geographer to Louis XV. Their successor Charles-François Delamarche later revised and corrected the plates.
Medium: Copper engraving (intaglio) on paper, with hand-coloured outlines.
Artist / after: Robert de Vaugondy; revised and corrected by C.F. Delamarche, his successor.
Date: 1806, as stated in the cartouche.
Dimensions: Plate 10.2 x 9.1 in (26 x 23.1 cm); sheet 12.5 x 17.7 in (31.8 x 45 cm).
Condition: Age foxing scattered across the margins and some on the map, with light toning and brown stains at both ends of the central fold; handwritten numbers in the upper margin; original central fold; wide margins.