An attractive map of Bengal from Jacques Nicolas Bellin’s greatest atlas, the ‘Petit Atlas Maritime’. This copperplate engraved map shows the whole region in detail with villages, towns, and rivers featured. Dhaka (Decca) in present day Bangladesh is prominently displayed unlike Calcutta (Coolecatte) in West Bengal. The rococo-style title cartouche bears a distance scale.

Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772) was one of the most important and prolific French cartographers of the mid-eighteenth century. The Dépôt des Cartes et Plans was founded in 1720 and the following year Bellin began working for them as the first Ingenieur Hydrographe de la Marine and became Royal Hydrographer. With access to the latest navigational reports, he produced a great many maps and charts of excellent quality compiling atlases of sailing charts for military and official use as well as for commercial publication. Nordenskiold Collection (1979) 1 no. 10; Phillips (1909-) 638 & 3508; Sanderson (1971) no. 211; Shirley (2004) M. Bell 5a.