AROUND THE WORLD IN 244 PIECES
[DELAMARCHE, Alexandre, cartographer; Bernard COUDERT, lithographer.]
‘Atlas’.
Paris, Legay, [c. 1889].
Three (probably of six) large engraved maps (320 x 460 mm), partially hand-coloured, each map laid on a wooden board and dissected into up to 138 pieces, boards lined with yellow paper verso and edged with gold paper; very well preserved in its contemporary wooden box, hand-coloured lithographic title signed ‘Coudert’ mounted to top, edges decorated with gold and floral patterned papers; box a little worn at extremities, title lightly dust-stained with a few minor scuffs and small stains.
An attractive set of large educational jigsaw maps showing the world, Europe, and France, preserved in its original allegorical box.
The hand-coloured allegorical lithograph by Bernard Coudert on the puzzles’ case shows Geography personified, holding an atlas and globe and sitting atop the Earth, flanked by the figures of two warriors: one in distinctive Scottish Highland dress, the other seemingly drawing on visual tropes of the indigenous people of Africa, America, and the Pacific, with a feathered headdress, a tasselled spear and small shield, draped in a tiger skin and wearing bracelets, anklets, and necklaces. Above on a scroll is the title ‘Atlas’ between the flags of France, the British Merchant Navy, the Ottoman Empire, and the Qing dynasty, and below an array of (no doubt fanciful) ethnographic objects – mostly weapons – surrounded by the names of the continents.
The three maps, from a Delamarche Atlas, show the world (‘Mappe-Monde en deux hémispheres’, nos 77-78), Europe (‘Carte politique de l’Europe, 1889’, no. 80), and France (‘France divisée en 86 départements’ and, inset, ‘France divisée en ses 32 provinces’, nos 70-71). Other sets are known to include Asia and the Americas, with maps in varying states suggesting production over the course of several years.
The invention of jigsaw maps, also known as dissected maps, dates back to the late 1760s and is variously attributed to Lady Charlotte Finch (1725–1813), royal governess to the children of George III and Queen Charlotte; to Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (1711–1780), author of Beauty and the Beast; and to London cartographer and engraver John Spilsbury (1739–1780), the last being the only one of the three to label his creations properly and to produce puzzles on a more industrial scale. Jigsaw maps, often cut along national or regional borders as here, had primarily an educational purpose in allowing children to learn about countries, continents, and their relative positions. Although considerably more expensive than normal maps, they soon became very popular.
See Williams, The Jigsaw Puzzle: Piecing together a History (2004).
