Atlas minor sive geographia compendiosa in qua orbis terrarum paucis attemen novissimis tabulis ostenditur. Atlas nouveau, contenant toutes les parties du Monde, Ou sont Exactement Remarquées les empires, monarchies, royaumes, etats, republiques, &c. &c. &c. Receuillies des Meilleurs Auteurs
THE CHAMPAGNE–WARDINGTON COPY
[Ottens, Reinier and Josua Ottens.] Amsterdam: Regner & Josue Ottens, [ca. 1720].
Folio (20 7/8” x 13 1/8”, 529mm x 334mm): π1. Title-page printed in red and black. With 53 engravings, all with original hand-color: 44 double-page maps (including a double-hemisphere world map), 4 folding maps, 4 double-page charts and 1 double-page illustrations of types of fortifications.
Bound in later diced calf over marbled boards. On the spine, six raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel. Crest and motto (“pax et spes”) of Pease gilt to the panels. Marbled end-papers.
Repaired in 2023 by Brockman (full report available). Maps numbered in ink in an old hand verso. Manuscript alphabetical index (in French) to the verso of the final sheet, calling for 59 illustrations. Ownership signature of “Geo Champagne” to the title-page and to the index. Wardington bookplate to the rear paste-down.
Brothers Reinier (1698–1750) and Josua (1704–1765) Ottens were governors of Amsterdam’s guild of booksellers; this gave them unprecedented access to the maps of Europe — France in particular. The present work (which is sometimes found with an engraved title-page as well) contains maps by Jaillot, de Wit, de l’Isle, de Fer and Visscher inter alia. In the XVIIc and XVIIIc the Dutch were superlative cartographers in their own right, but also freely adapted — a less generous term might be “pirated” — the maps of others. The organization of maps is quite traditional: from the double-hemisphere map continue several dozen maps of Europe. Toward the end appear the rest of the world: Asia, Africa and the Americas. The final sheet gathers up a variety of types of star and other fortifications in use historically and around the world.
George Champagne (sometimes Champagné; 1751–1828) was descended of a prominent line of French protestant émigrés (Huguenots) to England. He served as Rector of Twickenham from 1802–1818, and from 1802–1828 was Canon of (St. George’s Chapel) Windsor, occupying the third stall. Champagne is remembered by the gift of some £233 of Old South Sea annuities he made in 1822 to the Dean and Canons of Windsor which was used to set up a fund to buy books or clothes for students of the National School at Windsor.
Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease (1924–2005), 2nd Baron Wardington, was a book collector of great renown, building a splendid library at his Oxfordshire home, Wardington Manor. His particular interest was the very finest examples of cartography. His sale (Sotheby’s London, 10 October 2006; the present item was lot 362) was a landmark in the field, and its catalogue practically a reference work in its own right.
Item #JLR0430
Price: $65,000