Old Map of Asia by Victor Levasseur, c.1852
Price range: £35.55 through £59.95
Asia by Victor Levasseur, circa 1852
Victor Levasseur’s map of Asia combines a continent-wide map with an elaborate pictorial frame. Ten medallions, allegorical figures and animals surround the geography, while the central map names regions from the Middle East and India to China, Japan and Southeast Asia. Issued during the great age of decorative French atlases, this richly detailed sheet is both a historic map and a striking work of nineteenth-century printmaking.
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Historical Background
Levasseur’s map places a detailed view of Asia inside an elaborate frame of allegorical figures, medallions and animals. The central geography spans the continent and neighbouring parts of Europe and Africa; the border turns the map into an illustrated statement about how a French atlas audience in the mid-nineteenth century pictured Asia.
Map Details
- Original title: Asie
- Cartographer: Victor Levasseur
- Publication: Circa 1852, in the Atlas National Illustré; engraver and exact issue not confirmed
- Area shown: Asia and adjoining parts of Europe and Africa
The map names regions across the continent, including India, China, Tibet, Mongolia and the kingdoms of mainland South-East Asia. Around it, ten medallions and larger figures mix animals, biblical imagery and allegorical symbols. These vignettes are not a neutral record of the many peoples represented: they reflect nineteenth-century European conventions and the uneven knowledge and political ambitions through which Asia was presented to French readers.
Look at the contrast between the busy labels in the central map and the theatrical scenes around its edges. The geographic sheet aims to organise a vast continent through place names and borders; the illustrations frame that geography for an atlas audience and carry their own assumptions. Together they make the print particularly compelling, combining historical geography with the decorative visual language of Levasseur’s atlas.