Original map of Siberia or Asian Russia, Chinese Tartary, the Land of the Eluts and the Islands of Japan ("Sibérie ou Russie Asiatique, Tartarie Chinoise, Pays des Eluts et Isles du Japon"), with Kamchatka and Korea, engraved on copper with hand-coloured outlines, from the work of Robert de Vaugondy. The title runs in a band above the map, signed "Par Robert de Vaugondy &c.", and the engraver E. Dussy signs at lower right.
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, revised by Delamarche, his successor.
Engraver: E. Dussy (signed in the plate, lower right: "Gravé par E. Dussy").
Date: c. 1800.
Dimensions: Plate 10.1 x 11.5 in (25.7 x 29.2 cm); sheet 12.5 x 17.7 in (31.8 x 45 cm).
Condition: Foxing in the margins, toning along the central fold and a few small spots on the map; old numbers in the upper margin; wide margins.