JOHN FRANCIS RENAULT (FRENCH, LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY) AND HENRY SCHENK TANNER (AMERICAN, 1786-1858) REVOLUTIONARY WAR YORKTOWN SURRENDER MAP copperplate engraving on laid paper, "Plan of York Town in Virginia and adjacent country, exhibiting the operations of the American, French & English Armies during the siege of that place in Oct. 1781. Survey'd from the 22nd to the 28th Octr. Drawn by J. F. Renault with a crow-pen and presented to the Marquis de Lafayette", published 1825 in Philadelphia, after Major Sebastian Bauman (1739-1803). Matted and housed under glass in a modern frame. 1825. 32" x 21 1/2" sight, 41 1/2" x 30 1/2" OA.
As-found unrestored condition with moderate edge tears and small losses. Five-inch tear at bottom edge and two-inch tear in right corner, seventeen-inch vertical tear at center. Minor to moderate discoloration, heavier to margins. Minor creases.
Provenance: From an Arlington, VA collection.
Catalogue Note: A rare and desirable map of the early Republic that celebrates its revolutionary origins by resurrecting the memory of a seminal moment from the past, the present example was created at a time when the young nation began to codify and mythologize its history in the face of rapidly evolving social, cultural, and economic norms. Drawn by John Francis Renault, a French officer at the siege, and engraved by Henry Schenk Tanner, the map was produced in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette on the hero's triumphal return visit to the Untied States nearly fifty years after the events of the Revolutionary War. Renault and Tanner's map is based on the original work of Major Sebastian Bauman (1739-1803), one of four officers in charge of the American batteries at Yorktown. Bauman began surveying the battlefield just three days after Cornwallis's surrender, and his plan is widely considered to be highly accurate. Though Renault and Tanner's reproduction is nearly fifty years later than Bauman's original, it is equally scarce and generally regarded as the more attractive example.

As-found unrestored condition with moderate edge tears and small losses. Five-inch tear at bottom edge and two-inch tear in right corner, seventeen-inch vertical tear at center. Minor to moderate discoloration, heavier to margins. Minor creases.