[CASED POCKET ATLAS; REVOLUTIONARY WAR]. [Almanach géographique ou petit atlas élémentaire …]

A$8,500 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

[Paris : Desnos, circa 1771]. Thirty-two copperplate engraved maps, each measuring 95 x 95 mm (image) and 115 x 115 mm (sheet), numbering in the upper right corner of each map; laid on linen, overall measurements 470 x 940 mm; inscribed verso Presented by the Marquis St. Simon to A. Gordon, with the initials M. G. (another Gordon family member?) below, and with another inscription crossed out; housed in a red morocco presentation case with gilt-tooled decoration and title ATLAS , 125 x 125 mm, lined with blue paper and silk. A rare configuration possibly unique of Desnos Almanach géographique ou petit atlas élémentaire, dissected and laid on linen, in a fully contemporary presentation case. An inscription records that the cased atlas was presented presumably to its second owner by Claude Anne de Rouvroy, Marquis de Saint-Simon-Montbléru (1743-1819), a highly significant figure in the American Revolutionary War. The Marquis de Saint-Simon sailed for the Caribbean in 1779 as a colonel in the Touraine regiment. In 1781 he arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in command of 3500 French soldiers, where he joined forces with a smaller American army under Lafayette. Between them, Saint-Simon and Lafayette conducted the siege of Yorktown, during which Saint-Simon s force succeeded in preventing Cornwallis and his troops from escaping northwards along the road to Williamsburg. Although he was badly wounded in the leg, Saint-Simon refused to leave the lines until the British surrendered, and

• Binding: Hardcover

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