?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
JAMES THIRIAR (1889-1965)
CONGO / TABULA HISTORICA. Circa 1955.
41 1/4x29 1/2 inches, 104 3/4x75 cm. [Information and Documentation Center of Belgian Congo and of Ruanda-Urundi]. Condition A- / B+: minor tears, creases and abrasions in margins; loss in lower left corner. Paper.
Thiriar was an illustrator, caricaturist, painter, and costume designer, who became a mapmaker with the Belgian Army during World War I. Many of his observational sketches of soldiers on the front lines were printed in European newspapers. In 1932, Thiriar participated in an expedition to the Congo and Sudan, producing illustrations and watercolor paintings of flora and fauna there. In this poster, the artist portrays much of the dark military and slave trade history of the Congo. At least one other version of this map was printed, with some pictorial variations, and published around 1951 by a chocolate company.
