Atlas maritime ou Cartes reduites de toutes les Côtes de France avec des Cartes particulieres des Isles voisines les plus considerables, suivies des plans des principales Villes Maritimes de ce royaume Par M. Bonne de la Societé Litteraire Militaire M.tre de Mathem. Ingenieur Géographe
THE de REDÉ–ROTHSCHILD COPY
Paris: Lattré, [1762]. First edition.
Duodecimo (4 15/16” x 3”, 125mm x 77mm): with an engraved title-page, engraved dedication, 2pp. engraved preface, 2pp. engraved contents, 16pp. engraved text (paginated 31-46), 4pp. engraved publisher’s advertisements at the end and 30 double-page engraved maps, of which the first 12 are hand-colored.
Bound in contemporary red morocco, with triple gilt fillet borders and corner fleurons gilt. On the spine, seven panels gilt. Title (“ATLAS/MARITI”) gilt to green morocco in the second panel. Diagonal gilt roll to the edges of the boards, continuing to the inside dentelle. Ingres blue end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Blue silk marking ribbon.
Some scuffing and the odd blemish, just starting at the head of the front board. A little peripheral tanning to the text-block. The final two leaves of the engraved text (pp. 43-46) a little trimmed (at the plate-mark, perhaps from an enthusiastic impression) at the lower edge. Cypher bookplate to the front paste-down. Armorial bookplate of Alexis de Redé to the recto of the second free end-paper.
Rigobert Bonne (Rigaubert, 1727–1794/5) succeeded Nicolas Bellin as Hydrographe du Roi — chief maritime cartographer — in 1773, overseeing the great shrinkage in France’s overseas territories under the waning days of Louis XVI. The present work, though dedicated to the king (Louis XV), was made before his royal appointment (indeed, it is among his earliest publications). It presents in pocket-form a complete coastal atlas of France (and parts of Spain and Italy), a truly useful and usable book for any Frenchman with his eyes on the rest of the world. The final 18 maps are in fact plans of major coastal cities (including those somewhat inland such as Nantes) and their fortifications, which would allow for a more thorough assessment of their commercial and military positions.
The present volume seems, happily, to have been little used if at all. The bookplate at the front paste-down, which is probably the earliest (XIXc by its style), is presumably British — an irony given that the main threat to French naval power in 1762 (by which point the Seven Years’ War had been contested for six years) was from the Royal Navy — although the exact possessor is difficult to pin down. The earl’s coronet (which has no continental equivalent) above the erminois mantle and the use of a cypher (entwined R’s) point rather to a countess; could it be the Countess of Rosslyn? Perhaps Hannah Primrose (née de Rothschild), Countess of Rosebery?
The following bookplate belongs to a very much better-known person: Oskar Dieter Alex von Rosenberg-Redé, 3rd Baron von Rosenberg-Redé (1922–2004), known in French and English sources as Alexis de Redé. The very picture of a newly-ennobled and yet penniless European aristocrat, Redé moved to New York in the early days of World War II and became the protégé and lover of Arturo López Willshaw. Resettled in Paris, Redé restored the Hôtel Lambert (for which he was made commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2003) at the east tip of the Île Saint-Louis in Paris. There — where, presumably, the present volume graced the shelves — he hosted parties including, in 1969, the most celebrated of all: le Bal Oriental. He was the epitome of le tout-Paris.
Redé’s landlords — and his upstairs neighbors at the Hôtel Lambert — were Guy and Marie-Hélène de Rothschild, who bought the building in 1975. The volume was acquired from the Christie’s Paris sale of the “Bibliothèque de la famille Rothschild” 22 November 2023, lot 46.
Polak, Bibliographie maritime française 944; Shirley, BL M.Bonn–1a.
Item #JLR0586
Price: $2,750