

Fine copy of De Fer's large map of the East Indies, showing India, the Malay Peninsula with Singapore, Sumatra and Indochina to Hainan. The map was published by Danet, De Fer's son-in-law and successor.
Nicolas de Fer (1646-1720), was an engraver, geographer, titled geographer of the King and active from 1687 to 1720. He began his apprenticeship at the age of 12 with an engraver. In 1687, he took over the map trade from his mother after the death of his father, Antoine de Fer, a print and map merchant who died in 1673, and executed more than 600 maps or plans: frontier maps, maps of the new conquests of Louis XIV, cities fortified by Vauban, voyages and discoveries of new territories. In his main work, the Atlas Curieuse, he published several maps of the Americas and the West Indies. At his death, his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jacques-François Besnard, also engravers, continued Nicolas de Fer's activity on their own account.