Composite Atlas--Jaillot, Alexis Hubert.

4 volumes, large folio (675 x 555mm.), 4 engraved architectural titles, contents leaf in each volume within elaborate border, manuscript table pasted in centre, title to Sanson's Introduction à la géographie printed in red and black (repeated in Dutch) and 399 engraved maps, 2 engraved plates of ships and flags, 94 engraved tables and 5 engraved distance tables, fine contemporary hand colour, uncut, contemporary roan-backed marbled boards, some marginal soiling and fraying, volume 2 with some dampstaining affecting titles and first few maps, binding worn

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A rare composite atlas in four volumes.

The core of the atlas is the series of double-page maps composed by the French map-maker Alexis Hubert Jaillot. Initially, Jaillot worked in partnership with the sons, and heirs, of Nicolas Sanson to produce a world atlas - Atlas Nouveau - in elephant folio format, in paper size the largest atlas published to date, and completed in 1681. When the partnership with the Sansons ended, Jaillot entered into a new partnership, to produce a "contrefaçon hollandaise" in the words of Pastoureau, of the Atlas Nouveau in 1692. Confusingly, although the title-page and individual maps bear the Paris address of Jaillot, they were actually engraved for Pierre (Pieter) Mortier, and his partners, in Amsterdam.

When this partnership ended, the plates passed to Mortier, who reprinted the atlas under his own imprint; this coincided with the campaigns of the War of the Spanish Succession, and Mortier supplemented the Atlas Nouveau with a series of lavish maps of the various theatres of war, several present here, notably of Spain, Northern Italy, Hungary with the Danubian countries and the West Indies, as well as a new, and highly decorative, map of the World, also present here.

Jaillot and Mortier also produced a pirate edition of the French Admiralty's Neptune Francois, and three charts from that atlas are present here. Often found bound with the Atlas Nouveau, but purely Dutch publications, are the Atlas Maritime [1693] with the charts etched by Romein de Hooghe, and the Suite du Neptune Francois [1700]. In this composite atlas there are the Mediterranean from the Atlas Maritime, the most elaborate and decorative map of the Mediterranean, and numbers of charts from the Suite du Neptune Francois, including the world map, the important suite of maps of the Americas and the map of the Pacific.

In about 1730, Covens and Mortier pirated the Delisle atlas, issued as Atlas Nouveau, and this atlas is also heavily represented here. These maps are supplemented from other sources - maps by the Blaeus and Frederick de Wit, principally of the Baltic and Scandinavian regions, sheets from the Covens and Mortier edition of Eugene Fricx's wall-map of the Low Countries, their edition of Jacob Aertsz, Colom's wall-map of Holland on 40 sheets, and other maps by them: Scheuchzer's four-sheet map of Switzerland, Bloemswaerdt's plan of Loenen, Sprutenburgh's Loosdrecht, 1734, Punt's Castricum, 1737, and Bernard de Roij's wall-map of Utrecht ten sheets joined in two strips, the 11 sheet uncut. Two rare maps are a pair of the theatre of war in the Ukraine and northern Black Sea copied from originals by Frauendorff published in St. Petersburg, both maps with letterpress text panels pasted to their right hand borders, and Nolin's map of the 'Montagnes de Sevennes' circa 1707.

The latest datable maps are the set of Dutch piracies of Popple's wall-map of the British colonies in America: the key map, the four-sheet wall-map and the sheet of views, and the plans of Porto Bello (1740) and Cartagena (1741) from the War of Jenkins' Ear.

These atlases are remarkable not only for the range of contents, but also for the fine original body colour throughout, and remarkable condition.