RUSSIA CHINA KOREA JAPAN 1746 HOMANN HEIRS & GÜSSEFELD UNUSUAL ANTIQUE MAP

Charte das Russische Reich und die von den Tartarn bewohnte Länder in Europa und Asia enthaltend entworfen von F.L. Güssefeld. Nürnberg bey den Homännischen Eben 1786 Mit Röm. Kayser. allg. Freyheit. 

Description: Striking and highly detailed fine unusual 1786 Homann Heirs's copper engraved expansive map of Russia extending to show China, Korea (Corea), and Japan and delineates the Great Wall. The map notes cities, towns, rivers, lakes, reliefs and islands.

Lovely cartouche features a three-masted ship. Scroll-like inset lists names of 24 regions keyed to the map. French title above top border, "Carte de l'Empire de Russie & de la Grande Tatarie dressée avec soins par F. L. Güssefeld & publiée par les Herit. de Homann, l'an 1786".

This map was prepared by Franz Ludwig Güssefeld for the Homann Heirs.

Date: 1786 ( dated )

Dimension: Map size approx.: cm 59,9 x 51,7

Condition: Very strong and dark impression on good paper. Paper with chains and wiremarks. Map old original colored. Wide margin at the top. Goodlower margin. Lateral margins missing. Small foxing and browning. Small waterstains. Map folded Conditions are as you can see in the images. 

Mapmakers: Johann Baptist Homann (March 20, 1664 - July 1, 1724) was the most prominent and prolific map publisher of the 18th century. Homann was born in Oberkammlach, a small town near Kammlach, Bavaria, Germany. As a young man Homann studied in a Jesuit school and nursed ambitions of becoming a Dominican priest before converting to Protestantism in 1687. Following his conversion, Homann moved to Nuremberg and found employment as a notary. Around 1693 Homan briefly relocated to Vienna, where he lived and studied printing and copper plate engraving until 1695. Afterwards he returned to Nuremberg where, in 1702, he founded the commercial publishing firm that would bear his name. In the next five years Homann produced hundreds of maps and developed a distinctive style characterized by heavy detailed engraving, elaborate allegorical cartouche work, and vivid hand color. The Homann firm, due to the lower cost of printing in Germany, was able to undercut the dominant French and Dutch publishing houses while matching the diversity and quality of their output. By 1715 Homann's rising star caught the attention of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the VI, who appointed him Imperial Cartographer. In the same year he was also appointed a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Homann's prestigious title came with a number of important advantages including access to the most up to date cartographic information as well as the "Privilege". The Privilege was a type of early copyright offered to a few individuals by the Holy Roman Emperor. Though not as sophisticated as modern copyright legislation, the Privilege did offer a kind of limited protection for several years. Most all J. B. Homann maps printed between 1715 and 1730 bear the inscription "Cum Priviligio" or some variation. Following Homann's death in 1726, the management of the firm passed to his son Johann Christoph Homann (1703 - 1730). J. C. Homann, perhaps realizing that he would not long survive his father, stipulated in his will that the company would be inherited by his two head managers, Johann Georg Ebersberger and Johann Michael Franz, and that it would publish only under the name Homann Heirs. This designation, in various forms (Homannsche Heirs, Heritiers de Homann, Lat Homannianos Herod, Homannschen Erben, etc..) appears on maps from about 1731 onwards. The firm continued to publish maps in ever diminishing quantities until the death of its last owner, Christoph Franz Fembo in 1848.

Franz Ludwig Güssefeld (6 December 1744 – 17 June 1807) was a German cartographer. He is noted for his highly accurate maps which were mostly published by Homannsche Erben ("Homann Heirs") in Nuremberg. Güssefeld was born in Osterburg and already had an interest in drawing and creating maps in his youth. When he failed to secure a position with the Prussian Corps of Engineers, he became a forester. His 1773 map of Brandenburg was the first of over a 100 maps of his that were published by Homann Heirs. The high quality of Güssefeld's work is credited with saving Homann Heirs, a formerly famous publisher which before Güssefeld's arrival had been in an increasingly difficult position due to mismanagement. During the final 18 years of his life, the Landes-Industrie Comptoir and Geographisches Institut von Bertuch in Weimar also published some of Güssefeld's maps. Güssefeld died of pulmonary edema in Weimar in 1807.