PARIS FRANCE 1762 BRION DE LA TOUR & DESNOS ANTIQUE COPPER ENGRAVED CITY MAP

Plan General de la Ville et Faubourgs de Paris Dressée en ses Vingt Quartiers Par Desnos, Ingénieur-Géographe pour les Globes et Spheres, Ruë St. Jacques, au Globe 1762.

                                    

Description: Striking and highly detailed fine unusual 1762 Louis Brion de la Tour's copper engraved map featuring an aerial  plan of Paris, France. The plan shows the city with his buildings, churches, streets, bridges, town walls and surrounding landscape. A rococo-style title & mileage scale cartouche, a compass rose, a legend panel along left lateral side and a simple key cartouche complete the map.
 
Surrounding the whole is an elaborate decorative border.
 
This map was issued in the Desnos’ 1766 “Atlas General Methodique et Elementaire, Pour l’Etude de la Geographie et de l’Histoire Moderne”.

Date: 1762 ( dated )

Dimension: Paper size approx.: cm 47,9 x 34,4

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

Mapmaker: Louis Brion de la Tour (1743 - 1803) was the Cartographer Royal to the King of France, his official title being Ingenieur-Geographe du Roi, Despite a prolific cartographic career and several important atlases to his name, little is actually known of his life and career. He mat have been born in Bordeaux. His son of the same name was born in 1763 and published until his death in 1832. It is nearly impossible to distinguish the work of the father, from the work of the son, as both used the same imprint and were active in roughly the same period. Much of their work was published in partnership Louis Charles Desnos (fl. 1750 - 1790). Their most notable work is generally regarded to be his 1766 Atlas General.

Louis Charles Desnos (1725 - April 18, 1805) was an important 18th century instrument maker, cartographer and globe maker based in Paris, France. Desnos was born in Pont-Sainte-Maxence, Oise, France, the son of a cloth merchant. From April of 1745 he apprenticed at a metal foundry. Desnos married the widow of Nicolas Hardy, sone of the map, globe, and instrument seller Jacques Hardy. Desnos held the coveted position of Royal Globemaker to the King of Denmark, Christian VII, for which he received a stipend of 500 Livres annually. In return Desnos sent the King roughly 200 Livres worth of maps, books and atlases each year. As a publisher, Desnos produced a substantial corpus of work and is often associated with Zannoni and Louis Brion de la Tour (1756-1823). Despite or perhaps because of the sheer quantity of maps Desnos published he acquired a poor reputation among serious cartographic experts, who considered him undiscerning and unscrupulous regarding what he would and would not publish. Desnos consequently had a long history of legal battles with other Parisian cartographers and publishers of the period. It is said that he published everything set before him without regard to accuracy, veracity, or copyright law. Desnos maintained offices on Rue St. Jacques, Paris.