Royaume du Grand Mogol

Circa 1720

Original hand-coloured copper engraving on paper

Print size: 11.5 x 13.5 in (29 x 34.5 cm)
Sheet size: 12.25 x 15 in (31 x 38 cm)
Folded: 12.25 x 7.25 in (31 x 18.5 cm)

A scarce and finely engraved Van der Aa plate from the monumental Galerie Agréable du Monde—one of the most ambitious illustrated geographical works of the early 18th century

Pieter van der Aa’s Royaume du Grand Mogol is taken from the extraordinarily rare Galerie Agréable du Monde, a lavishly illustrated geographical compilation issued in Leiden in the early eighteenth century. Combining newly engraved plates with material acquired from earlier mapmakers, Van der Aa embedded his maps within Baroque decorative surrounds of exceptional richness, producing one of the most ambitious illustrated travel and geography projects of its age.

Cartographically, this plate occupies a notable position as one of the last published maps to provide a faithful Dutch transmission of William Baffin’s seminal 1619 map of Mughal India. The enduring outline and toponymy of the Baffin–Roe model—first drawn from court intelligence gathered during Sir Thomas Roe’s embassy to Jahangir—remained the foundational European template for North India well into the eighteenth century, and Van der Aa’s edition represents a late and scarce survival of that influential tradition, just before Delisle and d’Anville reshaped the mapping of India along more strictly scientific lines.

The sheet is further distinguished by its surrounding sequence of Mughal and Hindu scenes—temples, religious ritual, wandering ascetics, and homage to the sacred cow—framed within an elaborate ornamental border. Such imagery reflects early modern European fascination with Indian ceremony, piety, and spectacle, presenting the Mughal world not only as a political geography but as a realm of ritualised order and cultural intensity.

Van der Aa’s publishing empire specialised in travel narratives and global descriptions; his output of more than 130 voyages ensured that these images became a cornerstone of European conceptions of Asia. Because the Galerie Agréable was printed in extremely limited numbers, surviving plates such as this—uniting the afterlife of Baffin’s cartography with Van der Aa’s decorative virtuosity—are rare and highly sought after.

NON-EXPORTABLE

This lot is offered at RESERVE

This lot will be shipped in "as is" condition. For further details, please refer to the images of individual lots as reference for the condition of each lot.