MAURITIUS IMPRINT

Instructions de la Colonie de l'Isle de France, a Ses Députés en l'Assemblée Nationale. [Instructions from the Colony of Isle de France, to Its Deputies in the National Assembly]

Au Port Louis de l'Isle de France: L'Imprimerie Royale, September 25, 1790. Folio. (13 x 8 1/4 inches). [X]2 A6. [4] [1]-9 [3]. 16 pp. Letterpress printed. Front wrapper printed black. Folded sheets, three leaves loose. Title with woodcut, Preface by Jollivet and Balu, Instructions given by the Colony of the Isle of France to M. M. Collin and Coderc, Articles I-XXI, List of 31 signatories. Text in French. On laid paper watermarked with a crown, cross, and lion symbol. Woodcut printer's ornaments, tail-piece.

Early Mauritius imprint, printed a year into the French Revolution, from when it was the French colony of Isle de France; this letterpress document instructs the colony's deputies in the Assemblée Nationale in Paris on 21 articles.

Early and unrecorded imprint from the colonial press at the French colony of Mauritius, then known as the Isle de France. Isle de France was a French colony in the Indian Ocean from 1715 to 1810, comprising the African island now known as Mauritius and its dependent territories. It was governed by the French East India Company and formed part of the French colonial empire. Under the French, the island witnessed major changes, including the importation of enslaved people and the undertaking of vast infrastructural works that transformed the capital Port Louis into a major center of shipping, warehousing, and commerce. The present document records the steps made to establish what was largely an autonomous self-government of the colony a year into the French Revolution that was raging in Paris. Printing started in Mauritius in 1768. During the French colonial period, until 1810, only about four hundred imprints were produced, mostly official documents and newspapers, though there are also almanacs and a few other sundry items. All are rare. No copies located in OCLC, and it is not recorded by Toussaint in his bibliography of Mauritius imprints. The Dutch were the first Europeans to become interested in the island, taking possession in 1598. After exploiting the island's dense forests for a century and introducing the cultivation of sugar cane and cotton, in 1710 the Dutch abandoned the colony. The French soon claimed it as "Isle de France," and the island remained under the control of the French East India Company until 1767. During the long war between France and England at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Mauritius proved to be an important strategic naval base, and as a result the British took charge of the island in 1810. The Treaty of Paris confirmed official British possession in 1814. It remained an important sugar producing colony, and in the twentieth century its agricultural production was expanded to include tea, rice, and other crops.

Item #28433

Price: $6,500.00