Paris 1705 and Nicolas de Fer
1705. Nicolas de Fer
De Fer was so successful at improving the firm that, in 1690, he became the official geographer to Louis, Dauphin of France. With support from the Spanish and French royal families, de Fer also became official geographer for Philip V and Louis XIV, the kings of Spain and France, respectively. Because of this, his maps became Bourbon propaganda, endorsing French King Louis XIV.
His business flourished, producing town plans, atlases, wall maps, and more than 600 sheet maps. He made maps of places in Europe and North America, including New Spain, places fortified by Vauban, the Low Countries, and the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1698, de Fer published a map of North America, which included a depiction of beavers building dams near Niagara Falls. Seventeen years later, Herman Moll published a map which plagiarized elements of de Fer’s work, particularly the beaver scene. It became known as the Beaver map. De Fer became the official geographer for His Catholic Majesty in 1720. Two of his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jaques-François Bénard, continued the company after de Fer’s death on 25 October of that year until around 1760.
