Original map of the Upper and Lower Saxon Circles ("Cercles de Haute-Saxe et de Basse-Saxe"), engraved on copper with hand-coloured outlines, from the work of Robert de Vaugondy, from the Nouvel Atlas Portatif. According to the cartouche, it was corrected by Lamarche, his successor. It covers the area from the Weser to the Oder and Poland, and from Denmark and the Baltic down to Bohemia and Franconia, with Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig and Dresden; scale bar below the cartouche. Signed lower right by the engraver E. Dussy.
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 Delamarche later revised and corrected the plates.
Medium: Copper engraving (intaglio) on paper, with hand-coloured outlines.
Artist / after: Robert de Vaugondy; corrected by Lamarche, his successor.
Engraver: E. Dussy (signed in the plate, lower right: "Gravé par E. Dussy").
Date: Circa 1800.
Source: Nouvel Atlas Portatif.
Dimensions: Plate 10.1 x 12.6 in (25.6 x 32 cm); sheet 12.5 x 17.7 in (31.8 x 45 cm).
Condition: Heavy foxing in the margins, especially the left and lower ones, and lighter foxing on the map, with a brown spot in the Baltic near the upper border; light toning; original central fold; wide margins.