david rumsey historical map collection _ cartouches, or decorative map titles

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Featured Maps February 25, 2010

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vid Rumsey Historical Map Collection | Cartouches, or Decorative ... http://www.davidrumsey.com/blog/2010/2/25/cartouches-decora

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Cartouches, or Decorative Map Titles

Cartouches are the elaborate decorations that frame map titles and other information about the map. Theyadd an artistic or symbolic narrative to the maps they describe. According to map historian Edward Lynam,cartouches that frame titles first appear on Italian maps in the 16th century. They persist on maps until themiddle of the 19th century, going through many stylistic changes. Below are selected cartouches from mapsin our collection, beginning in 1703 and ending in 1852. The cartouche styles in this 150 year period are

remarkable for their diversity, symbolism, social commentary, and artistic beauty. Many of the cartouchesappear to have iconographic meanings that may be lost to us today. Others are just wildly ornate, attemptingto give the map they introduce a more arresting aspect. 50 cartouches are shown below; click on any of theimages to see the larger maps that the cartouches embellish.

This first group of three cartouches are from Guillaume de Lisle'sWorld Atlasof 1731:


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Carte du Canada ou de la Nouvelle France et des decouvertes que y ont ete faites; Guillaume de Lisle; 1708.


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Carte des Courones du Nord. Dediee au tres puissant et tres invincible Prince Charles XII; Guillaume deLisle; 1706.


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Carte de la Grece. Dressee sur un grand nombre de memoires anciens et nouveaux; Guillaume de Lisle;1707.

Henry Popple's 1733 atlasMap of the British Empire in Americafeatures a cartouche remarkable for itsmysterious symbolism, including a severed head of a (we assume European) man with an arrow sticking intoit:


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A Map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish Settlements adjacent thereto; HenryPopple; 1733.


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A detail of the Henry Popple map cartouche showing the severed head with arrow, a crocodile, twomonkeys, and female figure.


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A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America ; John Mitchell; 1757 (London edition).


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Amerique Septentrionale avec les Routes, Distances en miles, Limites et Establissements Francois etAnglais. Par le Docteur Mitchel; John MItchell; 1756 (Paris edition by Le Rouge).


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Le Colonie Unite dell' America Settentrle; Mitchell, John; Raynal, G.T.; Zatta, Antonio; 1778 (Venice, Italy,edition by Zatta).

Here is the elegant map cartouche of the immense, nine sheetPlan of St. Petersburg1753, with a depictionof and dedication to the Empress Elizabeth of Russia:


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Plan stolichnago goroda Sanktpeterburga s izobraheniem znatiieshikh onago prospektov, izdannyi trudamiImperatorskoi Akademii nauk i khudozhestv. Plan de la ville de St. Petersbourg avec ses principales vuesdessine & grave sous la direction de l'Academie imperiale des sciences et des arts; Akademiia nauk SSSR;1753.

Five imaginative and artistic map cartouches from theAtlas Universelby Didier and Gilles Robert deVaugondy, 1757:

Carte de l'Egypte Ancienne et Moderne; Didier and Gilles Robert de Vaugondy; 1753.


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L'Empire de la Chine, Dresse d'apres les cartes de l'Atlas Chinois; Didier and Gilles Robert de Vaugondy;1751.


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L'Empire du Japon; Didier and Gilles Robert de Vaugondy; 1750.


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Nouvelle France ou le Canada; Didier and Gilles Robert de Vaugondy; 1755.


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Etats du Grand-Seigneur en Asie, Perse, Pays des Usbecs, Arabie; Didier and Gilles Robert de Vaugondy;1753.

Thomas Jefferys used cartouches showing scenes of commerce and landscape in many of the maps in hisAmerican Atlas, published after his death by Sayer and Bennet in 1776, three of which are shown below:


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A Map of the most Inhabited part of New England; Thomas Jefferys; 1776.


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A Map of the most Inhabited part of Virginia; Thomas Jefferys; 1776.


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The Provinces of New York, and New Jersey; with part of Pennsilvania, and the Province of Quebec;Thomas Jefferys; 1776.

Some of Thomas Jefferys' maps were also published posthumously by Kitchin, Laurie and Whittle in their

New Universal Atlasof 1787, including this map of the Western Coast of Africa (derived from a French mapby D'Anville) with a cartouche full of various African themes:


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The western coast of Africa from Cape Blanco to Cape Virga; Thomas Jefferys; 1789.

Even Thomas Jefferys' trade-card was in the form of an elaborate cartouche:


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Thomas Jefferys Engraver... (trade card advertisement); Thomas Jefferys; 1750.


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James Cook's 1773 map of South Carolina has a cartouche that follows Jefferys' themes of colonialenterprise, nature, and indigenous peoples:

A Map of the Province of South Carolina; James Cook; 1773.

The four cartouches below using engraved Baroque style frames are from maps in Thomas Kitchin'sGeneralAtlasof 1790:


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England and Wales; John Rocque; 1790.


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Map of the Empire of Germany; Louis Stanislas d'Arcy Delarochette; 1790.


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A new map of North America, with the West India Islands; Thomas Pownall; 1786.

A map of South America; Thomas Kitchin; 1787.

William Faden'sGeneral Atlasof 1811 included the four map cartouches below, placing titles in buildings,on mountains and rocks, and adding humorous elements (as on the map of Turkey in Europe):


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Greece, Archipelago and part of Anadoli; Louis Stanislas d'Arcy Delarochette, William Faden; 1791.


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Nouvelle carte de la Suisse; William Faden; 1799.


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A map of Bengal, Bahar, Oude & Allahabad; James Rennell, William Faden; 1786.


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European dominions of the Ottomans, or Turkey in Europe; William Faden; 1795.

Aaron Arrowsmith, London map publisher, used cartouches on many of his wall maps, including depictionsof Niagara Falls, the tropics, and portraits of explorer Captain James Cook:


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A map of the United States of North America; Aaron Arrowsmith; 1802.


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Map of America; Aaron Arrowsmith; 1811.


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Map of the World on a Globular Projection; Aaron Arrowsmith; 1808.

American map publishers used modest cartouches starting in the late 18th century and gradually developedmore elaborate ones in the first half of the 19th century:


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Vermont From actual Survey Delineated & Engraved by Amos Doolittle; Mathew Carey; 1795.


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Connecticut From the best Authorities. Delineated & Engraved by A. Doolittle; Mathew Carey; 1796.


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Map Of Massachusetts; Osgood Carleton; 1801.


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New Hampshire; Philip Carrigain; 1816.


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To The Citizens Of Philadelphia This New Plan Of The City And Its Environs Is respectfully dedicated Bythe Editor; Charles P. Varle; 1802.


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The State of New York with part of the adjacent States; John H. Eddy; 1818.


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Map of Pennsylvania, constructed from the county surveys authorized by the State; John Melish; 1826.

Samuel Lewis' simple illustration of a traveler with his dog form the title cartouche for his 1819 map of the

United States:


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The travellers guide. A new and correct map of the United States; Samuel Lewis; 1819.

Joseph Bouchette's maps of Canada were surveyed and drawn by him in Canada, but printed in London byWilliam Faden. The cartouches for two of the maps below are extremely ornate, probably reflecting theinfluence of Faden:


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Map of the Provinces of Upper & Lower Canada with the adjacent parts of the United States of America;Joseph Bouchette, William Faden; 1815.


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Topographical map of the Province of Lower Canada; Joseph Bouchette, William Faden; 1815.

Philadelphia map publisher Henry Tanner used scenes of the American landscape in his panoramiccartouches for his maps of North America, New England, and the United States:


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A Map of North America; Henry Tanner; 1823.


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Map Of The States Of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut & Rhode Island;Henry Tanner; 1823.


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United States of America; Henry Tanner; 1829.

Smaller, independent American map publishers produced some interesting variations. This pocket map of Ohio by Columbus, Ohio map publisher Hiram Platt has an unusual cartouche:


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Ohio; Hiram Platt; 1825.

S.A. Mitchell and James H. Young of Philadelphia used landscape and commerce as the themes for thiscartouche:


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Map Of The United States; Samuel Augustus Mitchell, James H. Young; 1831.

Even American school atlas maps had cartouches, as shown in this map fromThomas Smiley's Atlasof 1842:


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N. America; Thomas T. Smiley; 1842.

By the middle of the 19th century, map cartouches were incorporating actual views of cities or landscapesinto the maps to add decoration to the titles, as in this map of Naples, Italy and the one below it of NorthAmerica:


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Naples. Napoli.; Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: 1844.


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Map of North America; J.H. Colton; 1852.

The use of views to embellish maps largely replaced decorative cartouches after 1850. In a sense, the


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illustrated cartouche now wraps the entire map, not just the title. Three examples are shown below, the firstfrom theIllustrated Atlasof 1851 by Martin and Tallis:


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Ceylon; R.M. Martin, J & F. Tallis: 1851.

An even more ornate example of map illustration is this map from Levasseur'sAtlas National Illustre des 86Departments et des Possessions De La Francefrom 1856:


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Dept. De Corsica; Victor Levasseur; 1856.

The final example of the use of views is this map from Fullarton'sRoyal Illustrated Atlasof 1872, one of thelast of the decorative atlases published in the 19th century:


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British Possessions on the North East Coast of South America; A. Fullarton & C0.; 1872.

This entire group of cartouches and the maps they are taken from can be seen as aslide-showor as agroup.For further reading, especially on the early period of map cartouches from the 16th and 17th centuries, seeEdward Lynam's discussion of cartouches in his 1953Mapmaker's Art (PDF).

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5 Comments on Cartouches, or Decorative Map Titles

Rogrio Zaiaon April 27, 2010 at 4:22pm wrote:

Belissmos!!!! Bravo!!!!

Mason Greenon November 28, 2010 at 6:04pm wrote:Awesome job! Great stuff, thanks!

Jackie on January 29, 2011 at 1:57am wrote:

Thank you so much for this I now understand what a cartouche is and how it can transform the map! Greatpost!

Gareth Thompson on June 11, 2011 at 6:58pm wrote:

A fascinating collection, and a great help wth some research I was doing. Thank you for sharing these.

Pat on July 27, 2012 at 4:58am wrote:

How stunning works of art in their own right. Thank you for sharing these gems!

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