Tour de Porcelaine A Nanking tireé de Nieuhof.

Article description

Copper engraving, uncolored as published. A beautiful depiction around 1760 of the Porcelain tower in Nanking (Nanjing, capital of the eastchinese province Jiangsu). Published in an atlas volume of Nicolaus Bellin's ,Histoire generale des Voyages' around 1760 in Paris.

Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 – 21 March 1772) was a French hydrographer, geographer, and member of the French intellectual group called the philosophes.

Bellin was born in Paris. He was hydrographer of France's hydrographic office, member of the Académie de Marine and of the Royal Society of London. Over a 50-year career, he produced a large number of maps of particular interest to the Ministère de la Marine. His maps of Canada and of French territories in North America (New France, Acadia, Louisiana) are particularly valuable. He died at Versailles.