The Qing Emperor Kangxi commissioned Jesuit surveyors to chart his kingdom from 1708 to 1716. The resulting maps were published as the Kangxi Atlas (1718-19), and the information contained in its woodcut maps would not be superseded for well over a century.

The French cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon D'Anville (1697-1782), acquired copies of the Kangxi maps and devised his own interpretations, first printed in Jean-Baptiste Du Halde's Description geographique historique...de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise. The cartouche reflects this connection, showing Emperor Kangxi seated above the strapwork borders of the title, presiding over the surveying parties, where two Jesuit priests, with an armed mounted escort, are investigating a settlement, with its houses, sheep and cattle.

Large engraved map (495 x 705 mm) with contemporary outline colouring and some later enhancement, large decorative cartouche and mileage scale, good margins.