[Persia]. Bonne, Rigobert (1727-1794). — "Carte de L'Empire de Perse"

partially handcoloured engraved map with title cartouche, ca. 32,8 x 44,5 cm. (map)/ 38,5 x 52 cm. (total size), Paris, Bonne, 1771. = Published in Jean Lattre's Atlas moderne (1771), plate 23. A striking example of Rigobert Bonne’s decorative map of Persia, this piece depicts the region extending from the Black Sea southward to the Persian Gulf, and eastward beyond the Caspian Sea to the Indus Valley. It encompasses the modern territories of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, as well as portions of present-day Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. The map details numerous tribal regions, cities, villages, deserts, caravan routes, and river systems. At the time this map was created, Persia was in the final years of the short-lived Zand Dynasty, which ruled from its capital at Isfahan (marked on the map). Within fifty years of its publication, in 1794, Aga Muhammad Khan would depose Loft Ali Khan, the last Shah of the Zand Dynasty, and establish Tehran as the new capital. The succeeding Qajar Dynasty would preside over an era marked by military conflict with rising powers like Russia and the consequential loss of large portions of Persian territory. Bonne was appointed Royal Cartographer to France in 1773 and compiled some of the most detailed and accurate maps of the period, appreciated as more scientific and practically aesthetic rather than decorative. Fine copy with a few minor stains just outside the plate-mark (not visible when placed under a passepartout).