Opulentissimum Sinarum Imperium juxta Recentissimam Delineationem in suas Provincias Disterminatum… [The Wealthiest Imperium of China with the Most Recent Delineation of its Provinces…]

Description

original hand-colour copper engraving. 

With glorious fully (later?) colour huge and decorative allegorical cartouche, representing the Europe-China trade. Five allegorical figures combine Knowledge, Power and Influence looking at the map of China; the seated figure of Prosperity points to trading junks at sea. A not only detailed but also very stunning map of China, Korea, Taiwan and southern tip of Japan. Matthias Seutter (1678- 1757) was the son of a goldsmith in Augsburg. In 1697, Seutter began his studies in Nuremberg. In 1710, he established his own publishing house and print shop. (further details see JO & label. The Seutter publishing house produced a great number of maps, atlases, and globes. However, very few original maps were printed there, as Augsburg at that time had no university and no connection to the fields of mathematics or the natural sciences. Seutter therefore copied the work of other cartographers, making his own engravings based on their models. Over 500 maps were produced in his studio. Seutter’s most well-known works are the 1725 “Geographical Atlas or an Accurate Depiction of the Whole World” (“Atlas Geographicus oder Accurate Vorstellung der ganzen Welt”) with 46 maps, the 1734 “Large Atlas” (“Grosser Atlas”) with 131 maps, and the 1744 pocket atlas “Small Atlas” (“Atlas minor”) with 64 maps. Seutter’s son Albrecht Karl, his son-in-law Conrad Tobias Lotter (1717–1777), and his business partner Johann Michael Probst ran Seutter’s printing business for five more years after his death and eventually, in 1758, Lotter took over the entire business and from thereon, removed the Seutter name from all plates and replaced it with his own. The Lotter Verlag in Augsburg existed from 1758 to 1810.