• Title : Amerique Septentrionale Suivant la Carte de Pople....A Paris....Le Rouge...1742
• Date : 16742
  
• Size: 24 1/2in x 22 1/2in (625mm x 570mm)
• Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
• Ref:  27093

Description:
This incredibly important, original hand coloured copper plate engraved antique map of North America by George Le Rouge, after Henry Popples famous North America map, was published in 1742 - dated.

A handsome key sheet from a French edition of the first large-scale map of colonial North America. Among the 18 inset maps along the right border are ones of Bermuda, Boston, New York City, and Charleston. Popple's original, 1733 map ran to 20 sheets, hence the necessity of a key sheet. It was a semi-official undertaking intended to depict for British colonial administrators the respective North American territories of England, France and Spain. This French-published version, as expected, greatly exaggerates French territory at the expense of both England and Spain.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original & later
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 24 1/2in x 22 1/2in (625mm x 570mm)
Plate size: - 20 3/4in x 19 3/4in (525mm x 500mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (30mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light creasing along margins
Plate area: - Light creasing
Verso: - Re-enforced along centerfold

Background:
In 1730, the English Board of Trade & Plantations issued a request for maps of the British, French, and Spanish territorial claims in the New World, as ongoing boundary conflicts hindered economic development in the colonies. A former employee, Henry Popple, created an incredible 20-sheet map first published in 1733 that covered a broad region between Hudson Bay and the northern coast of South America and inland as far as the Rio Grande. It would become tremendously influential diplomatically as disputes among European powers increased dramatically in subsequent decades.
Accompanying the monumental production was a keymap, seen here as a later French edition issued by Georges Louis Le Rouge in 1742. With the exception of the language, decorative elements, annotations, and a missing vignette in the upper left corner, the image is largely the same as the original. It’s surprisingly accurate, as Popple was studious in his use of the latest available sources, though several geographic features have been enlarged or distorted and a large mysterious lake filled with islands appears near the western edge of the sheet.
It’s likely this is a remnant of the great saline sea speculated by Baron Lahontan, a French military officer who traveled extensively throughout the Great Lakes region from 1684 -1689. He later wrote several popular travel volumes that included reports of a Long (or Longue) River that branched from the Missippi westward, eventually reaching a large salt lake at the foot of a mountain range. The geographic influences of his story would be reflected in subsequent cartographic efforts throughout the 18th and into the early 19th century, and speculation on Lahontan’s travels persists to this day.
Elsewhere in the image, the topography is depicted pictorially and shows a prominent Appalachian Mountain range as well as a curious plateau in Michigan that Lewis Karpinski describes as a “fanciful creation.” Native American and European settlements are identified throughout and geographic features are labeled according to the key in the upper right. Seventeen inset plans of prominent port cities and islands can be seen in the lower right; including Boston, Charleston, New York, St. Augustine, Havana, and Cartagena.

Popple, Henry 1680 - 1743
Henry Popple was a British cartographer active in the early part of the 18th century. Popple was a clerk with the Board of Trade and Plantations, the organization that governed Britain's colonies in America. With his father, grandfather, and brother all being employed the board of trade, the Popple family had a long history of association with the British colonial administration. Popple received his commission as a clerk at the board of trade in 1727, but resigned in the same year. Curiously this is the same year he began work on his signature production, the Popple of North America, he resigned from the board to take a position as the Cashier to Queen Anne. Nonetheless he continued to work on his great maps and a manuscript version of the Popple Map appeared in this very year. Subsequently, Popple continued to update and refine the map until 1733 when it was finally printed. The Board of trade intended the Popple map to be a British response to Delisle's French mapping of North America, which presented boundaries that conflicted with British colonial ambitions. However, since Popple in fact based much of his map on Delisle's superior cartography, he also managed to copy many of the French political boundaries - to the detriment of the Board of Trade and its expansionist intentions. Although Popple's map was never approved by the Board, examples were rushed to each colonial governor and the map played a significant role in the cartographic history of North America. Popple cartographic endeavor began and ended with this singular map however, it significance was such that he must be considered in any list of significant British mapmakers.

George Louis Le Rouge fl. 1740-80
A military engineer by profession, le Rouge took up cartography and over a long period from about 1740 to 1780 produced many attractive works covering a wide range of subjects including plans of fortifications, military campaigns, town plans as well as the more usual atlases and sea charts.

• Titles: 
  1. Extrema Americae....Terra Nova Francia;
  2. Nova Belgica Et Anglia Nova;
  3. Nova Virginiae Tabula;
  4. Virginiae partis australis, et Floridae;
  5. Nova Hispania;
  6. Yucatan...Guatimala;
  7. Insulae Americanae;
  8. Canibales Insulae;
  9. Mappa Aestivarum Insularum Alias Barmudas
• Sizes: 24in x 20 1/2in (610mm x 520mm)ea
  
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
• Date: 1662
• Ref #:  BlaeuNA 1662

Description:
This is a unique opportunity to acquire a complete set of 9 maps of North America published by Joan Blaeus in the monumental & rare 1st 1662 Latin edition of Atlas Major. The maps cover the geographical detail of Canada, North America, Mexico, The Caribbean & Central America. Please see the background section below for details of each map. All maps have wide original margins & colour on strong sturdy paper.
Joan Blaeus 11 volumes of Atlas Major, is considered by many to be the greatest atlas set ever published. It excels in comprehensiveness, engraving, color, and overall production. The first edition was published in Latin in 1662 and was subsequently published in French, Dutch, German, and Spanish over the next 10 years.
On the 23rd of February 1672, a fire broke out in central Amsterdam, that ended the reign of one of the greatest & most prolific publishers of printed maps and atlases in publishing history. The Blaeu family had reached its zenith 10 years previously, with the publication of its greatest achievement, the Atlas Major or Great Atlas, consisting of 11 volumes, with geographical detail reflecting many of the achievements of the Golden Age of the United Netherlands. Blaeus Atlas Major were the most expensive books printed in the 17th century.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Blue, pink, red, green, yellow
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 24in x 20 1/2in (610mm x 520mm)
Plate size: - Various, pls see below
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm) min

Imperfections:
Margins: - Pls see below
Plate area: - Pls see below
Verso: - Pls see below

Background:
1. Extrema Americae ( Eastern Canada) - Rare only published in Atlas Major. Derived mainly from the Samuel de Champlain Nouvelle France map of 1632, this map reflects the growing financial importance of the waters of New France to Europe.
Plate: 22 1/2in x 17 3/4in.
Condition: Age toning, text show-through & browning to image.

2. Nova Belgica Et Anglia Nova (New England) - NE America, centering on New York and Manhattan from Virginia to the St Lawrence River. This map is noted for the fact that its primary source is the first manuscript figurative map of Adriaen Block from 1614. Indeed it is the first full representation of it in print. It is one of the earliest to name Nieu Amsterdam. Block, a Dutch fur trader, explored the area between Cape Cod and Manhattan, examining the bays and rivers along the way.
Plate: 19 1/2in x 15 1/2in
Condition: Age toning, text show-through & browning to image.

3. Nova Virginiae Tabula (John Smiths Virginia & Chesapeake Bay) This map was printed from a plate engraved by Dirk Grijp from a previous plates by Henricus Hondius.
Plate: 19in x 15in
Condition: Light age toning

4. Virginiae partis australis, et Floridae Virginia, the Carolinas & Georgia.
Plate: 20in x 15in
Condition: Light age toning

5. Nova Hispania et Nova Galicia Western Mexico
Plate: 19 1/2in x 15 1/2in
Condition: Light age toning

6. Yucatan...Guatimala (Yucatan, Central America) Rare only published in Atlas Major.
Plate: 20 1/2in x 16 1/2in
Condition: Light age toning

7. Insulae Americana (GOM, Caribbean)
Plate: 20 1/2in x 15in
Condition: Light age toning

8. Canibales Insulae (Lesser Antilles Islands) Rare, printed only in Atlas Major
Plate: 21in x 16 1/2in
Condition: Age toning

9. Mappa Aestivarum Insularum Alias Barmudas Dictarum Bermuda. Like all 17th century maps of Bermuda this map is based ultimately on the survey made by John Norwood, of the Bermuda Company, in 1618 in the form as published by the English map-maker John Speed in 1627.
Plate: 21in x 16in
Condition: Light age toning