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Description

Rare, decorative map and view of Gibraltar and Ceuta by Nicolas de Fer, bearing the imprint of De Fer's successor, Guillaume Danet.

The map depicts the battle around Gibraltar during the Anglo-Spanish War in 1727. In the upper part a view of Gibraltar with a city map, at bottom left a plan of Ceuta and on the right a coastal view of Gibraltar with sailing ships in foreground.

The upper map depicts the English Navy, under the leadership of Vice Admiral Wager, bombarding the Spanish fortifications from both sides of the Peninsula.

Nicolas de Fer Biography

Nicholas de Fer (1646-1720) was the son of a map seller, Antoine de Fer, and grew to be one of the most well-known mapmakers in France in the seventeenth century. He was apprenticed at twelve years old to Louis Spirinx, an engraver. When his father died in 1673, Nicholas helped his mother run the business until 1687, when he became the sole proprietor.

His earliest known work is a map of the Canal of Languedoc in 1669, while some of his earliest engravings are in the revised edition of Methode pour Apprendre Facilement la Geographie (1685). In 1697, he published his first world atlas. Perhaps his most famous map is his wall map of America, published in 1698, with its celebrated beaver scene (engraved by Hendrick van Loon, designed by Nicolas Guerard). After his death in 1720, the business passed to his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jacques-Francois Benard.