Maps (920)
1486 Claude Ptolemy, Holle & Reger Antique Renaissance Map of Great Britain & Ireland - Rare
Antique Map
- Title : Prima Europe Tabula
- Date : 1486
- Size: 20 1/2in x 15 1/2in (552mm x 397mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 92669
This original hand coloured wood-block engraved very early, rare antique map of Great Britain & Ireland was published in the 1486 Ulm edition & translation of Claudius Ptolemys (87-150) text, published in the 2nd edition of Lienhart Holles & by Johann Reger atlas Claudii Ptolomei .... Cosmographie ... Opus Donni Nicolai Germani Secvndvm Ptolomevm Finit, Ulm, Germany. (Shirley 5)
This is a unique & very rare map and only the 4th map of the British Isles printed, published only 47 years after Johannes Gutenbergs invention of the moveable type printing press in 1439.
The two edition of Lienhart Holles atlases were published in 1482 & 1486. The 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemys Geographia was the first edition printed north of the Alps and the first to appear in color, applied by the publisher.
The 1482 Ulm edition was one of the most important cartographic texts of the early Renaissance and the first edition of the work to be printed outside Italy. The text for this edition was based upon a manuscript translated into Latin by Jacobus Angeli and edited by Nicolaus Germanus that had been brought to Ulm from Rome in 1468. The Ulm Ptolemy was published in 1482 by Lienhart Holle, the same year as Berlingheris Florence edition. Ashley Baynton Williams notes:.........Working independently of Berlinghieri, but apparently using the same or similar models, Holle also added modern maps of Spain, France, Italy and Palestine, but also the first printed map of Scandinavia, composed by Cornelius Clavus, circa 1425-7 . Holles maps were printed from woodcuts, and are characterised by heavy wash colouring for the sea areas, typically a rich blue for the 1482 edition, and an ochre for the 1486 edition. These bright colours, and the greater sense of age that woodcuts convey, make this series the most visually appealing of the Ptolemeic maps.........
Holle went bankrupt shortly after the original publication and the work was taken over by Johann Reger, who issued a second edition in 1486.
This large map is in fine condition on strong sturdy paper, the printing impression is heavy and clear. The colour is original and beautifully applied. There has been professional restoration to the L&R bottom corners. No loss of original paper and restrengthened on the verso. The centerfold has been re-strengthened, on the verso, with some light creasing and rippling.
General Condition:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, red, brown.
General color appearance: - Authentic and fresh
Paper size: - 20 1/2in x 15 1/2in (552mm x 397mm)
Image size: -14 1/2in x 14 1/2in x 20 1/4in (369mm x 369mm (upper margin) 511 mm (lower margin)
Margins: - Min 1/4in (6mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light discolouration & soiling.
Plate area: - Bottom L&R corners restored, no loss. Light creasing and rippling
Verso: - Re-enforced along center-fold and L&R bottom corners
Background: The first editions of Ptolemys Geographia Atlas was published in Italy in 1477 and republished in 1478 & 1482. The next atlas to be published was north of the Alps by Lienhart Holle, in Ulm, Germany in 1482. Holles maps were printed from woodcuts, and are distinct with their heavy wash colouring for the sea areas, typically a rich blue for the 1482 edition, and an ochre for the 1486 edition. These bright colours, and the greater sense of age that woodcuts convey, make this series of maps one of the most visually attractive.
Claudius Ptolemy: (87-150) was an Egyptian astronomer and geographer living and studying in Alexandria. Alexandria was not only the home of the greatest library of any period, but was also one of the most important trade centres between west and east - here Ptolemy could not only study ancient authorities, but could also consult contemporary travellers and merchants. From this wealth of accumulated knowledge, Ptolemy composed his <i>Geographia</i>, a work of considerable genius, which dominated the whole of the Christian and Moslem world for 1,500 years (Tooley).
It was Ptolemy who introduced the concept of latitude and longitude to form a grid to cover the whole world, so that it would be possible to plot the position of principal land-marks on the map by observations, and then fill in other information from other sources, including the notes and Itinerary of Marinus of Tyre, perhaps the most accurate source available.
Unfortunately Ptolemy was hampered by the paucity of observations - as a result he exaggerated the length of the Mediterranean by over 20 degrees -and by lack of information which was often circumvented by invention. Despite these errors, which persisted for nearly 1,500 years, the work was of fundamental importance at a time when little was being done in the way of modern mapping. As a result of this work, which was so far in advance of anything before or anything produced in the next 1,500 years, Ptolemy has earned the reputation and accolade, the father of geography (Tooley).
Re-discovery of the Ptolemy Texts: Following the fall of the Roman Empire, Ptolemys text was lost to western geographers. The earliest extant manuscript version of the Geographia is Arabic, and probably dates from the 12th Century. Subsequently, the text was translated into Greek, and circulated through the Greek World. In about 1400 a Greek manuscript came into the hands of the Byzantine scholar, Emanuel Chrysolaras, who was working in Italy. Chrysolaras undertook a translation of the text into Latin, and completed by his pupil Jacopo dAngelo, in 1406. The Greek manuscript that Angelo translated was apparently lacking maps, but the data in the text contained the information to construct a set of maps, and numbers of scholars set about such work. Of them, the most influential, was Donnus Nicolaus Germanus, a German cartographer, active in Italy from the 1460s to 1480s. He was a prolific editor of the text and maps, and his work formed the basis for three of the four sets of Ptolemaic maps printed in the fifteenth Century, with the fourth, accompanying Berlinghieris Geographia, strongly influenced by him .
The first printed versions of Ptolemys Text: The first published edition of the Geographia with maps, which were probably engraved by Taddeo Crivelli, was issued in Bologna in 1477. Conrad Sweynheym was also working on an edition of Ptolemy in Rome in the same period. After his death, Arnold Buckinck, saw the atlas through the press, in 1478. Of the engraved editions of Ptolemys Cosmographia the maps in the Rome edition are the finest fifteenth century examples, and second only to Mercators maps, from his 1578 edition. The atlas proved popular, and three successive editions (to 1508) followed. In 1482, Nicolas Laurentii published a set of Ptolemaic maps to illustrate Francesco Berlinghieri Geographia.
The first edition of Ptolemys Geographia printed outside Italy was published by Lienhart Holle, in Ulm, also in 1482. Holles maps were printed from woodcuts, and are characterised by heavy wash colouring for the sea areas, typically a rich blue for the 1482 edition, and an ochre for the 1486 edition. These bright colours, and the greater sense of age that woodcuts convey, make this series the most visually appealing of these various sets of maps.
Later Editions of Ptolemy: Next in chronological sequence, and the most unusual of the editions of Ptolemy, was that published by Jacobus Pentius de Leucho in Venice in 1511, edited by Bernardus Sylvanus. Martin Waldseemullers edition of Ptolemy, first published in 1513, is the most important of the sixteenth century editions. Waldseemullers edition was reprinted in 1520, and then the maps were re-drawn by Lorenz Fries on a smaller format, for editions published in 1522, 1525, 1535 and 1541. The next to produce an edition of Ptolemy was Sebastian Munster, who worked in Basle. Munster was one of the leading geographers and cartographers of his period, and he diligently set about revising and improving the maps. Giacomo Gastaldi, one of the leading cartographers of the sixteenth century, composed a set of maps for an edition of the Geographia, published in Venice in 1548. Of all the editions of Ptolemy, that prepared by Gerard Mercator, and published in 1578, is technically the finest, with the World map being a particularly fine engraving. This atlas is, also, noteworthy for its longevity, the original printing plates were still in use in 1730, over one hundred and fifty years after they were first engraved. (Ref: Shirley 5; Stevenson; Tooley; M&B; MapForum)
1598 J Moretus & A Ortelius 1st Edition of The Peutinger Tables, Ancient Roman Empire Maps x 4
- Title : Tabula Peutingeriana. Tabula itineraria ex illustri Peutingerorum Bibliotheca quae Augusta Vindel. est. Beneficio Marco Velseri septemviri Augustani in lucem edita.
- Size: 22in x 20in (560mm x 510mm) each
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Date : 1598
- Ref #: 50519, 50520, 50521, 50522
Description:
For three decades, locating rare & unusual and maps has been one our main goals and I believe with the following maps we have reach a milestone. The following maps originate from the oldest direct linage of any maps we have offered, going back to the height of the Roman Empire. These are some of the rarest and most fascinating maps it has been my pleasure to offer.
In 1265 a Monk, in the German city of Colmar produced a hand written map, on parchment, of the imperial highways and cities of the ancient Roman world. When joined, the result was a scroll measuring 6.75m long & 34cm wide, covering an area from southeast England to present day Sri-Lanka. That map of 1265 was copied from an earlier 4th or 5th century map, itself copied from a 2nd century map that originated from a 1st century BC map from Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a Roman General & architect. When Agrippa died in 12BC his map was engraved in marble and displayed in the Porticus Vipsania in the Campus Agrippae area in Rome.
In 1494 the German Scholar, Conrad Celtes, discovered the Colmar scroll in a library, in the city of Worms. After his death in 1508, Celtes bequeathed the scroll to Konrad Peutinger, after whom the map is named. The scroll was kept in the Peutinger family until it was purchased by Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1714 and finally purchased for the Habsburg Imperial Court Library in Vienna, where it resides today.
As early as 1577 Abraham Ortelius, the Flemish cartographer, was aware of the existence of the Peutinger Tables, at that stage owned by Mark Welser. In 1591 Welser had two sections of the scroll printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice. Ortelius thought these inadequate and so commissioned the scroll engraved onto 8 separate plates . Ortelius supervised the engraving of the plates but did not live to see the results. In December 1598 the first edition of the 8 plates were printed individually, in limited numbers, by Johannes Moretus in Antwerp and are today amongst some of the rarest sets of maps available. To save space for printing in the first & second atlases in 1619 & 1624, two plates were printed per page, thus saving space. At that point a change was made to each plate, the engraving of a descriptive title at the bottom of each plate.
These maps we are offering are unique, being printed two per page but without the addition of the titles. So the conclusion we have come to is that these were prototypes printed to see if the printing of two plates per page were possible prior to the changes to the plates, making them unique.
We know that there were a total of 300 sets of these tables published in 1619 & 1624 atlases Theatrum Geographiae Veteris & Parergon , of which very few have survived. As for the 1598 edition, we do not know the number published or how many have survived but there is no doubt the number is very low in the single digits. Also I can find no record of sale for this original 1598 1st Moretus edition.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 22in x 20in (560mm x 510mm) each
Plate size: - 20 1/4in x 7 1/2in (505mm x 195mm) each
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
Tabula Peutingerian also referred to as Peutingers Tabul or The Peutinger Table, is an illustrated itinerarium (ancient Roman road map) showing the layout of the cursus publicus, the road network of the Roman Empire. The map covers Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia, including the Middle East, Persia, and India.
The map was found as a 13th-century parchment copy based on a document from the 4th or 5th century, that contained a copy of the world map, originally prepared by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa a Roman general & architect active during the reign of the emperor Augustus (27 BC – AD 14). After Agrippas death in 12 BC, that map was engraved in marble and put on display in the Porticus Vipsania in the Campus Agrippae area in Rome, close to the Ara Pacis building.
The original Roman map, of which the 13th century parchment copy may be the only surviving copy, was last revised in the 4th or early 5th century. This is illustrated by the inclusion of the city of Constantinople, founded in 328, and the prominence of Ravenna, seat of the Western Roman Empire from 402 to 476, which suggests a fifth-century revision. The presence of certain cities of Germania Inferior that were destroyed in the mid-fifth century also provides proof or 4th or 5th century revision.
The surviving 13th century map itself was created by a monk in Colmar in modern-day eastern France in 1265. It is a parchment scroll, 0.34 metres (1 foot 1 inch) high and 6.75 metres (22.1 feet) long, assembled from eleven sections, a medieval reproduction of the original scroll.
The 13th century parchment map is very schematic, designed to give a practical overview of the road network, as opposed to an accurate representation of geographic features: the land masses shown are distorted, especially in the east–west direction. The map shows many Roman settlements and the roads connecting them, as well as other features such as rivers, mountains, forests and seas. The distances between settlements are also given. In total no fewer than 555 cities and 3,500 other place names are shown on the map. The three most important cities of the Roman Empire at the time – Rome, Constantinople and Antioch – are represented with special iconic decoration.
Besides the totality of the empire, the map also shows areas in the Near East, India and the Ganges, Sri Lanka (Insula Taprobane), and even an indication of China. It even shows a Temple to Augustus at Muziris (present day Kodungallur) on the modern-day Malabar Coast, one of the main ports for trade with the Roman Empire on the southwest coast of India. On the western end of the scroll, the absence of Morocco, the Iberian Peninsula, and the British Isles indicates that a twelfth original section has been lost in the surviving copy; the missing section was reconstructed in 1898 by Konrad Miller.
The map appears to be based on itineraries, lists of destinations along Roman roads, as the distances between points along the routes are indicated. Travellers would not have possessed anything so sophisticated as a modern map, but they needed to know what lay ahead of them on the road and how far. The Peutinger Table represents these roads as a series of stepped lines along which destinations have been marked in order of travel. The shape of the parchment pages accounts for the conventional rectangular layout. However, a rough similarity to the coordinates of Ptolemys earth-mapping gives some writers hope that some terrestrial representation was intended by the unknown original compilers.
The stages and cities are represented by hundreds of functional place symbols, used with discrimination from the simplest icon of a building with two towers to the elaborate individualized portraits of the three great cities. Some conclud that the semi-schematic, semi-pictorial symbols reproduce Roman cartographic conventions of the itineraria picta described by 4th-century writer Vegetius, of which this is the sole known testimony.
The 13th century copy map was discovered in a library in the city of Worms by German scholar Conrad Celtes in 1494, who was unable to publish his find before his death and bequeathed the map in 1508 to Konrad Peutinger, a German humanist and antiquarian in Augsburg, after whom the map is named. The Peutinger family kept possession of the map for more than two hundred years until it was sold in 1714. It then bounced between several royal and elite families until it was purchased by Prince Eugene of Savoy for 100 ducats; upon his death in 1737, it was purchased for the Habsburg Imperial Court Library in Vienna (Hofbibliothek). It is today conserved at the Austrian National Library at the Hofburg palace in Vienna.
The map was copied for Dutch cartographer Abraham Ortelius by Johannes Moretus and published separetly, shortly after his death, in 1598. The maps were not published in an atlas until 1619 by Petrus Bertius and again in the Ortelius Parageon in 1624.
A partial first edition was printed at Antwerp in 1591 (titled Fragmenta tabulæ antiquæ) , Johannes Moretus, printed the full Tabula in December 1598, in Antwerp. Johannes Janssonius published another version in Amsterdam, c. 1652.
In 1753 Franz Christoph von Scheyb published a copy, and in 1872 Konrad Miller, a German professor, was allowed to copy the map. Several publishing houses in Europe then made copies. In 1892 publishers Williams and Norgate published a copy in London, and in 1911 a sheet was added showing the reconstructed sections of the British Isles and the Iberian peninsula missing in the original.
1630-31 Hondius Antique World & Four Continent Maps America Africa Asia & Europe
- Title : Nova Totius Terrarum; America Noviter Delineata; Africae Nova Tabula; Asia recens summa; Europa Exactissime.
- Date : 1630-31
- Size: 22 1/2in x 20in (520mm x 505mm) ea
- Condition: (A & A+) Very Good & Fine Condition
- Ref: 43164; 43157; 43158; 43160; 43159
Description:
These 5 original, hand coloured copper plate engraved world and 4 continental maps, engraved by Henricus Hondius between 1630 and 1631 were published in the same 1639 edition of the Hondius/Mercator Atlas.
Henricus Hondius' World and Four Continent Maps are a series of highly detailed and beautifully illustrated and hand coloured maps that represent some of the finest examples of 17th-century cartography & artistry. The world map features ornate illustrations of ships, sea monsters, and mythological creatures, as well as depictions of important cities and landmarks around the globe. The four continent maps - Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas - are similarly detailed and feature intricate illustrations of people, animals, and mythological figures from each region. These maps are notable for their use of the Mercator projection and their accuracy in depicting the size and shape of the continents. Henricus Hondius' maps were highly valued during his lifetime and continue to be prized by collectors and scholars today for their historical significance and artistic beauty.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - Please see background description below
Plate size: - Please see background description below
Margins: - Please see background description below
Imperfections:
Margins: - Please see background description below
Plate area: - Please see background description below
Verso: - Please see background description below
Background:
Nova Totius Terrarum: Dated 1630. Beautiful original hand colour, strong clean paper, original margin size. General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink, red
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 20in (520mm x 505mm)
Plate size: - 21 1/2in x 15in (545mm x 380mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Old expert re-enforcement of margins front & verso. 4 small wormholes to margins
Plate area: - Creasing, slight separation of centerfold on bottom section of map
Verso: - Centerfold re-enforced
Overall condition: - VG
America Noviter Delineata: Dated 1631. Beautiful original hand colour, strong clean paper, original margins.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink, red
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 20in (520mm x 505mm)
Plate size: - 19 3/4in x 15in (500mm x 380mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - Light creasing along centerfold
Verso: - Bottom margin of centerfold re-enforced
Overall condition: - Fine
Africae Nova Tabula: Dated 1631. Beautiful original hand colour, strong clean paper, original margins.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink, red
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 20in (520mm x 505mm)
Plate size: - 19 3/4in x 15in (500mm x 380mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - Slight separation to bottom of centerfold
Verso: - Bottom margin of centerfold re-enforced
Overall condition: - Fine
Asia recens summa: Dated 1631. Beautiful original hand colour, strong clean paper, original margins.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink, red
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 20in (520mm x 505mm)
Plate size: - 19 3/4in x 15in (500mm x 380mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - Light creasing along centerfold
Verso: - Bottom centerfold & left corner margin re-enforced
Overall condition: - Fine
Europa Exactissime: Dated 1631. Beautiful original hand colour, strong clean paper, original margins.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink, red
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 20in (520mm x 505mm)
Plate size: - 19 3/4in x 15in (500mm x 380mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - Light creasing along centerfold
Verso: - Bottom margin re-enforced
Overall condition: - Fine
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
1662 Joan Blaeu Complete Set of 9 Antique Maps of North America from Atlas Major, 1st Edition
- 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
1778 John Mitchell & Antonio Zatta 12 Sheet Antique Map of North America - Rare
- Title : Le Colonie Unite dell' America Settentrle. di Nuova Projezione Ass. Ee. Li Signori Riformatori dello Studio di Padova. Venezia 1778, Presso Antonio Zatta, con Privilegio dell' Eccellentissimo Senato.
- Ref #: 93528
-
Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Size: 52 1/2in x 51in (1.33m x 1.30m)
- Date : 1778
Description:
This impressive very large twelve-sheet joined, original hand coloured important antique map is Antonio Zattas version of John Mitchells 1755 landmark map of North America, published first in 1778. This map is one of a few to be released during the late 18th century copying Mitchells map, in an effort to explain the rapidly changing political & economic situation in North America. Zatta has included many additional notes relating to both the Treaty of 1763 and events in the Revolutionary War. Most importantly, it is the first printed map devoted to the thirteen states, and to use the a name distinguishing them from their previous status as British Colonies. The name United Colonies was used in the Declaration of Independence and was not officially replaced until the Articles of Confederation adopted the name The United States of America.
This is an incredibly important and rare map, especially joined, in excellent condition with original colour. With John Mitchells map is now almost now impossible to find, with the last known sale in 2011 of $175,000US, this map is now one of the few, of that period, that is avaialble.
Zatta published these twelve separate sheets of Mitchells Map of North America, plus three other maps: Il Canada, Le Isole di Terra Nuova e Capo Breton, and La Baja D Hudson in the atlas Atlante Novissimo published from 1779-1785, with a second edition of the Zatta/Mitchell map published in 1791. Zattas version does not cover the far western portions of Mitchells map stretching to the Mississippi. An image of Mitchells map has been included as a point of reference.
Because Mitchells map was immediately recognized as seminal, it was exceedingly popular. Events leading up to the American Revolution only increased that demand. During the midst of the colonists on-going struggle for liberation from England, Zatta published this version which included some additional place names and information on early battles of the American Revolution.
The maps of Venetian publisher Antonio Zatta are noteworthy for their fine craftsmanship and high aesthetics. He was probably the most important Italian map publisher of the late eighteenth century and is responsible for a large number of atlases and single maps of considerable aesthetic and scientific merit.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 52 1/2in x 51in (1.33m x 1.30m)
Plate size: - 49 1/2in x 49 1/4in (1.26m x 1.25m)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light creasing
Plate area: - Light creasing
Verso: - Light creasing
Background:
A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America by John Mitchell Map is a landmark map by John Mitchell (1711–1768), which was reprinted several times during the second half of the 18th century, in France, Italy & Germany. The Mitchell Map was used as a primary map source during the Treaty of Paris for defining the boundaries of the newly independent United Colonies. The Mitchell Map is the most comprehensive map of eastern North America made during the colonial era, measuring 6.5 feet (2.0 m) wide by 4.5 feet (1.4 m) high.
Mitchell started compiling a first draught map in 1750 from information acquired in London, both in official & private archives. This proved to be inadequate & George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, accordingly ordered the governors of the 13 British colonies to survey and compile new maps, which most did. These became the basis, along with cartographical information of the French geographer Guillaume Delisle, of his landmark map. Late in 1754, Halifax was using one manuscript copy of Mitchells second map to successfully promote his political position (no compromise with the French) within the British cabinet in the build-up to the Seven Years War, also know as the French and Indian War. Halifax also permitted Mitchell to have the map published: it appeared in April 1755, engraved by Thomas Kitchin and published by Andrew Millar.
The published map bore the title A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America. It bore the copyright date of 13 February 1755, but the map was probably not sold to the public until April or even May. Minor corrections to the maps printing plates were made probably during the printing process (for example, the name and address of the publisher were corrected).
The geographer John Green criticized Mitchell and his map soon after it appeared, emphasizing two failings with respect to Nova Scotia (an area of particular dispute with the French). Mitchell, Green noted, had used neither the astronomical observations for latitude and longitude made by Marquis Joseph Bernard de Chabert in the 1740s nor a 1715 chart of the Nova Scotia coast. In response, Mitchell released a new version of his map, now with two large blocks of text that described all of his data sources; the new version of the map also adjusted the coastline in line with Chaberts work but rejected the 1715 chart as deeply flawed. This version of the map, which Mitchell referred to as the second edition, is commonly thought to have appeared sometime in 1757, but advertisements in the (London) Public Advertiser and Gazetteer and London Daily Advertiser on 23 April 1756 clearly indicate that this new map appeared at that time.
Mitchells map was printed in eight sheets; when assembled, it measures 136 cm by 195 cm (4 feet 6 inches by 6 feet 5 inches; height x width). The initial impressions printed in 1755 have a consistent coloring outlining British colonial claims. Mitchell extended the southern colonies across the entire continent, even over established Spanish territory west of the Mississippi. Mitchell divided up the Iroquois territories (as he understood them, reaching from Lake Champlain [Lac Irocoisia] to the Mississippi, and north of Lake Superior) between Virginia and New York, leaving only a much-reduced territory to the French.
Mitchells map was expensive but it spawned many cheaper variants that trumpeted Halifax and Mitchells powerful colonial vision to the British public. One of these, published in December 1755 by a Society of Anti-Gallicans, restricted the French even further just to Quebec.
The map is liberally sprinkled with text describing and explaining various features, especially in regions that were relatively unknown or which were subject to political dispute. Many notes describe the natural resources and potential for settlement of frontier regions. Others describe Indian tribes. Many Indian settlements are shown, along with important Indian trails.
Since Mitchells main objective was to show the French threat to the British colonies, there is a very strong pro-British bias in the map, especially with regard to the Iroquois. The map makes clear that the Iroquois were not just allies of Britain, but subjects, and that all Iroquois land was therefore British territory. Huge parts of the continent are noted as being British due to Iroquois conquest of one tribe or another. French activity within the Iroquois claimed lands is noted, explicitly or implicitly, as illegal.
In cases where the imperial claims of Britain and France were questionable, Mitchell always takes the British side. Thus many of his notes and boundaries seem like political propaganda today. Some of the claims seem to be outright falsehoods.
The Mitchell Map remained the most detailed map of North America available in the later eighteenth century. Various impressions (and also French copies) were used to establish the boundaries of the new United States of America by diplomats at the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolutionary War. The maps inaccuracies subsequently led to a number of border disputes, such as in Maine.[clarification needed] Its supposition that the Mississippi River extended north to the 50th parallel (into British territory) resulted in the treaty using it as a landmark for a geographically impossible definition of the border in that region. It was not until 1842, when the Webster-Ashburton Treaty resolved these inconsistencies with fixes such as the one that created Minnesotas Northwest Angle, that the U.S.–Canada border was clearly drawn from Maine to the Oregon Country.
Similarly, during the drafting of the Northwest Ordinance, the maps inaccuracy in depicting where an east–west line drawn through the southernmost point of Lake Michigan would intersect Lake Erie led to a long dispute over the Ohio–Michigan border that culminated in the Toledo War.
Zatta, Antonio fl. 1757-1797
Antonio Zatta was a prominent Italian editor, cartographer, and publisher. Little is known about his life beyond his many surviving published works. It is possible that he was born as early as 1722 and lived as late as 1804. He lived in Venice and his work flourished between 1757 and 1797. He is best known for his atlas, Atlante Novissimo (1779-1785), and for his prolific output of prints and books that were both precisely made and aesthetically pleasing. Zatta clearly had a large network from which to draw information; this is how he was able to publish the first glimpse of the islands visited by Captain Cook in the Atlante Novissimo.
Zattas maps are noteworthy for their fine craftsmanship and high aesthetics. His re-engraving and publication of John Mitchells famous map of North America A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America in 1778, is considered one of the best re-issues of this seminal, landmark map .
......He was probably the most important Italian map publisher of the late eighteenth century and is responsible for a large number of atlases and single maps of considerable aesthetic and scientific merit.... (Portinaro & Knirsch, The Cartography of North America, 1500-1800, p. 319).
Zatta was among the leaders in the eighteenth-century revival of fine printing in Italy and his choice of the text of Raynal to support his re-issue of Mitchells Map, is not surprising. Anne Palms Chalmers describes Zatta as a sardonic writer with the focus of a certain amount of political controversy (Venetian Book Design in the Eighteenth Century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 29, No. 5, January 1971, pp. 226-235). Chalmers describes Zattas printing and design as harmonious in composition with ornament unified by style, quality of line, and tone of printing.
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
1774 Cook & Hawkesworth Antique Atlas of Australia, New Zealand 52 Maps & Prints
- Title : Cartes et figures des voyages entrepris par ordre de sa Majesté Britannique, actuellement régnante ; pour faire des découvertes dans l'hémisphère méridional, et successivement exécutés par le Commodore Byron, le Capitaine Carteret, le Capitaine Wallis & le Capitaine Cook dans les vaisseaux. MDCCLXXIV (1774)
- Size: 4to (Quatro)
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
- Date : 1774
- Ref #: 35632
Description:
This original antique Atlas containing 52 maps and prints, as called for, from some of the foremost explorers of the mid 18th century, including Commodore Byron, Captain Carteret, Captain Wallis & Captain James Cook, was published as the 1st French edition of Cartes et figures des voyages entrepris par ordre de sa Majesté Britannique: (Maps and Figures of Travels undertaken by Order of his Present Reigning British Majesty) in 1774, published after only a year after the 1st English edition by John Hawkesworth.
The 52 prints and maps contained in this atlas chart in maps, prints and plans, the progression in the exploration of the South Seas of the 4 explorers. But there is of course, the standout amongst these 4 explorers and that is of course Captain James Cook.
At the time of the publication of this tome, Cook had returned from his first voyage of exploration to The South Pacific, becoming the first European to survey and chart the coastline of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia. But at this point Cook was not as famous as he was destined to become, after completing 2 more voyages of exploration, and in turn becoming the most famous explorer of his era.
The majority of this atlas contains the prints and maps dedicated to Cooks 1st Voyage of Discovery including the two famous maps, one of New Zealand and the other the East Coast of Australia. All voyages can be tracked from the first large folding map of the South Seas, at the beginning of the Atlas, that illustrates the tracks on Cook and the other 3 explorers.
In-4 binding in half-calf, spine with five bands with gilding boxes and title label complete with 52 folding & single plates
Spine & boards in poor condition with lack of leather and scratched covers, contents tights with plates in very good condition.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 4to (Quatro)
Plate size: - 4to (Quatro)
Margins: - 4to (Quatro)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning - Maps & Prints
Plate area: - Folds as issued - Maps & Prints
Verso: - Folds as issued - Maps & Prints
Background:
Capt. Cook First Voyage 1768 - 1771:
In 1768 Cook was chosen to lead an expedition to the South Seas to observe the Transit of Venus and to secretly search for the unknown Great Southern Continent (terra australis incognita).
Cook and his crew of nearly 100 men left Plymouth (August 1768) in the Endeavour and travelled via Madeira (September), Rio de Janiero (November-December) and Tierra del Fuego (January 1769) to Tahiti.
At Tierra del Fuego (January 1769) Cooks men went ashore and met the local people whom Cook thought perhaps as miserable a set of People as are this day upon Earth. Joseph Bankss party collected botanical specimens but his two servants, Thomas Richmond and George Dorlton, died of exposure in the snow and cold. Leaving Tierra del Fuego Endeavour rounded Cape Horn and sailed into the Pacific Ocean.
Sir Joseph Banks wrote about the homes of the Fuegans
..…huts or wigwams of the most unartificial construction imaginable, indeed no thing bearing the name of a hut could possibly be built with less trouble. They consisted of a few poles set up and meeting together at the top in a conical figure, these were covered on the weather side with a few boughs and a little grass, on the lee side about one eighth part of the circle was left open and against this opening was a fire made.......(Banks, Journal I, 224, 20th January 1769)
Samuel Wallis on the ship Dolphin discovered Tahiti in 1767. He recommended the island for the Transit of Venus observations and Cook arrived here in April 1769. Cook, like Wallis two years before him, anchored his ship in the shelter of Matavai Bay on the western side of the island.
In Matavai Bay Cook established a fortified base, Fort Venus, from which he was to complete his first task – the observation of the Transit of Venus (3rd June 1769). The fort also served as protection for all the important scientific and other equipment which had to be taken ashore as:
.......great and small chiefs and common men are firmly of opinion that if they can once get possession of an thing it immediately becomes their own…the chiefs employd in stealing what they could in the cabbin while their dependents took every thing that was loose about the ship…...(Joseph Banks).
Theft by some native peoples plagued Cooks voyages.
Cook and his crew experienced good relations with the Tahitians and returned to the islands on many occasions, attracted by the friendly people of this earthly paradise. On arrival Cook had set out the rules, including:
.....To endeavour by every fair means to cultivate a friendship with the Natives and to treat them with all imaginable humanity....
Just as Cook was planning to leave Tahiti two members of Endeavours crew decided to desert, having strongly attached themselves to two girls, but Cook recovered them.
Cook sailed around the neighbouring Society Islands and took on board the Tahitian priest, Tupaia, and his servant, Taiata. Endeavour left the Society Island in August 1769.
Tupaia acted as interpreter when they came into contact with other Polynesian peoples and helped Cook to make a map of the Pacific islands. This showed Cook the location of islands arranged according to their distance from Tahiti and indicated Tupaias and Polynesian knowledge of navigation and their skill as great mariners.
Cook sailed in search of the Southern Continent (August-October 1769) before turning west to New Zealand. The first encounters with the native Maori of New Zealand in October were violent, their warriors performing fierce dances, or hakas, in attempts to threaten and challenge the ships crew. Some of their warriors were killed when Cooks men had to defend themselves. Eventually relations improved and Cook was able to trade with the Maori for fresh supplies.
Exploring different bays and rivers along the way Cook circumnavigated New Zealand and was the first to accurately chart the whole of the coastline. He discovered that New Zealand consisted of two main islands, north (Te Ika a Maui) and south (Te Wai Pounamu) islands (October 1769-March 1770).
The artist Sydney Parkinson described three Maori who visited the Endeavour on 12th October 1769:
......Most of them had their hair tied up on the crown of their heads in a knot…Their faces were tataowed, or marked either all over, or on one side, in a very curious manner, some of them in fine spiral directions…
This Maori wears an ornamental comb, feathers in a top-knot, long pendants from his ears and a heitiki, or good luck amulet, around his neck.
At the northern end of the south island Cook anchored the ship in Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound, which became a favourite stopping place on the following voyages. Parkinson noted:
......The manner in which the natives of this bay (Queen Charlotte Sound) catch their fish is as follows: - They have a cylindrical net, extended by several hoops at the bottom, and contracted at the top; within the net they stick some pieces of fish, then let it down from the side of the canoe and the fish, going in to feed, are caught with great ease.....(Parkinson, Journal, 114)
In Queen Charlottes Sound Cook visited one of the many Maori hippah, or fortified towns.
........The town was situated on a small rock divided from the main by a breach in a rock so small that a man might almost Jump over it; the sides were every where so steep as to render fortifications iven in their way almost totally useless, according there was nothing but a slight Palisade…in one part we observed a kind of wooden cross ornamented with feathers made exactly in the form of a crucifix cross…we were told that it was a monument to a dead man.......
Endeavour left New Zealand and sailed along the east coast of New Holland, or Australia, heading north (April-August 1770). Cook started to chart the east coast and on 29th April landed for the first time in what Cook called Stingray, later, Botany Bay.
The ship struck the Great Barrier Reef and was badly damaged (10 June). Repairs had to be carried out in Endeavour River. (June-August 1770). The first kangaroo to be sighted was recorded and shot.
The inhabitants of New Holland were very different from the people Cook had come across in other Pacific lands. They were darker skinned than the Maori and painted their bodies:
......They were all of them clean limnd, active and nimble. Cloaths they had none, not the least rag, those parts which nature willingly conceals being exposed to view compleatly uncovered......(Joseph Banks)
Tupaia could not make himself understood and at first the aborigines were very wary of the visitors and not at all interested in trading.
Joseph Banks recorded the fishing party observed at Botany Bay on 26 April 1770. He wrote:
......Their canoes… a piece of Bark tied together in Pleats at the ends and kept extended in the middle by small bows of wood was the whole embarkation, which carried one or two…people…paddling with paddles about 18 inches long, one of which they held in either hand.....(Banks, Journal II, 134)
Endeavour left Australia and sailed via the Possession Isle and Endeavour Strait for repairs at Batavia, Java (October-December 1770). Although the crew had been quite healthy and almost free from scurvy, the scourge of sailors, many caught dysentery and typhoid and over thirty died at Batavia or on the return journey home via Cape Town, South Africa (March-April 1771). The ship arrived off Kent, England (July 1771).
The voyage successfully recorded the Transit of Venus and largely discredited the belief in a Southern Continent. Cook charted the islands of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia and the scientists and artists made unique records of the peoples, flora and fauna of the different lands visited.
Vice-Admiral John Byron (1723-1786) was a British naval officer and explorer. He is known for his circumnavigation of the globe aboard the HMS Dolphin, completing one of the first British expeditions to achieve this feat. His account of the voyage, "The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron," influenced subsequent explorations. Byron's naval career included service in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War.
Rear-Admiral Philip Carteret (1733-1796) was a British naval officer and explorer. He is best known for his role as the captain of HMS Swallow during the first circumnavigation of the globe. Carteret's expedition, which took place from 1766 to 1769, aimed to explore and map uncharted regions of the Pacific Ocean. His discoveries included the Carteret Islands and the Pitcairn Islands. Carteret's voyage greatly contributed to the knowledge of Pacific geography and exploration during that time.
Samuel Wallis (1728-1795) was a British naval officer and explorer. He is renowned for leading the first recorded European expedition to visit Tahiti and for his significant contributions to the exploration of the Pacific Ocean. In 1766, Wallis commanded HMS Dolphin on a voyage funded by the British Admiralty. During the expedition, he discovered and named several islands, including Tahiti, which he encountered in June 1767. Wallis's visit to Tahiti marked the beginning of sustained European contact with the island and its inhabitants. His exploration efforts and subsequent reports greatly expanded European knowledge of the Pacific region. Wallis's achievements laid the foundation for future explorations and influenced subsequent voyages of exploration in the Pacific.
John Hawkesworth 1715 -1775
An English writer and journalist, Hawkesworth was commissioned by the British Admiralty to edit for publication the narratives of its officers circumnavigations. He was given full access to the journals of the commanders and the freedom to adapt and re-tell them in the first person. Cook was already on his way back from his second Pacific voyage, temporarily docked at Cape Town (South Africa), when he first saw the published volumes: he was mortified and furious to find that Hawkesworth claimed in the introduction that Cook had seen and blessed (with slight corrections) the resulting manuscript. (In his defense, Hawkesworth also had been a victim of misunderstanding.) Cook had trouble recognizing himself. Moreover, the work was full of errors and commentary introduced by Hawkesworth and, in Cooks view, too full of Banks, who had promoted himself and the publication. Still, the work was popular; the first edition sold out in several months.
Cook , Capt. James 1728-1779
James Cook was born on 27 October 1728 in Marton, England. His father was a poor farm labourer who had worked his way up to Overseer. James began as a farm labourer and grocer\\\'s assistant. He soon found employment on the Baltic sea in a Collier (coal transport ship) at the age of 18.
During the war with the French in 1755, James Cook enlisted as an Able Seaman on the Eagle. Within a month he was promoted, because of outstanding ability, to Masters Mate. Four years later he was promoted to Master. In command of his own ship, James Cook performed a crucial charting of the St. Lawrence River, which made possible the great amphibious assault upon Quebec City in 1759. In 1763 he was given command of the schooner Grenville to survey the eastern coasts of Canada over a four year period. These excellent charts were used up until the early part of the 20th century.
James Cook was selected to lead a 1768 expedition to observe the transit of Venus, and to explore new lands in the Pacific Ocean. In his first Pacific voyage, James Cook rounded Cape Horn in the Endeavour and reached Tahiti on 3 June 1769. After recovering a necessary scientific instrument stolen by the natives, the transit of Venus was successfully observed. The Endeavour then spent six months charting New Zealand. James Cook next explored and claimed possession of eastern Australia. Returning to England, on 12 June 1771, via New Guinea, Java and the Cape of Good Hope, the crew suffered an appalling 43% fatality rate. James Cook thus became very concerned about crew health on subsequent voyages. He instituted compulsory dietary reforms that were copied by many other ship captains.
The object of Captain Cook\\\'s second Pacific Ocean voyage was to confirm the existence of a theorized Great Southern Continent. His ship the Resolution, accompanied by the Adventure, departed Plymouth on 13 July 1772 and sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. Beset by ice, he was unable to reach Antarctica. Although its existence was suspected, James Cook demonstrated, by traversing large areas of the south Pacific, that it would have to be a frigid wasteland, and not an economically productive addition to the British empire. James Cook charted many of the South Pacific islands with the incredible accuracy of 3 miles. This accuracy was made possible by a new and highly accurate clock. The two ships returned to England, via Cape Horn, on 29 July 1775. The experimental diets and close attention to cleanliness had a miraculous effect: out of a crew of 118, only one man was lost to disease! Since public interest was high, the many paintings by the artists were widely displayed and published as engravings. James Cook was also awarded the Copley Gold Medal and elected as a fellow of the Royal Society.
The third great voyage is especially significant to the history of the west coast of North America. Captain Cook and his men were primarily searching for the Northwest Passage from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. They departed Plymouth on 12 July 1776 in the Resolution and the Discovery.
The ships sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to reach the west coast of America in February of 1778. They continued north along the coast in haste to the Bering Sea and Bering Strait in an attempt to pass through the Arctic Ocean during the summer season. Foiled by ice, James Cook returned to Hawaii to prepare for another attempt at the Northwest Passage the next season. Soon after they had departed, a storm damaged the foremast of the Resolution and forced a return to Kealakekua Bay for repairs. Unfortunately, they had previously overstayed their welcome and relations became tense. The theft of a ship\\\'s cutter led Captain Cook to put ashore to demand the return of the boat. A fight broke out and James Cook was killed on 14 Feb 1779 by angry natives. Although his men made another attempt at the Northwest Passage, they were unsuccessful. The expedition did identify the possibilities of trade with the coastal American natives for otter seal furs, which could then be bartered for Chinese goods that were highly prized in England.
1774 Malachy Postlethwayt Antique 2 Volume Atlas 7 Large Cont Maps North America
- Title : The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commercewith large Improvements Adapting the Same to the Present State of British Affairs in America since the last Treaty of Peace made in the year 1763....MDCCLXXIV
- Ref #: 93529
-
Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Size: Large Folio
- Date : 1774
Description:
These very large, heavy leather backed original antique dictionary & atlas volumes of early Global Economic Commerce by Malachy Postlethwayt was published in 1774.
The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce in 2 volumes is the 4th edition published in London by W. Strahan, J and F. Rivington, et al., in 1774. The first edition was published between 1751 & 1755. Titles in red and black with engraved vignettes, engraved allegorical frontispiece to volume 1 (offset onto title) and contain 24 engraved folding maps sheets that when assembled make 7 complete very large maps. Occasional minor spotting, contemporary diced calf, re-backed preserving original contrasting morocco labels, extremities repaired.
The seven maps once assembled, to the left, are as follows with titles, cartographers dates and dimensions;:
1. A Correct Map of Europe by Thomas Kitchin after D Anville, 80cm x 70cm, 1774
2. Africa Performed by the Sr D Anville Samuel Bolton after D Anville, 103cm x 94cm, 1774
3. A New and Correct Map of the Coast of Africa, so called Slave Coast Map, Richard Seale 48cm x 38cm, 1774
4. North America Performed under the Patronage of Louis Duke of Orleans Richard Seale after D Anville, 88cm x 86cm, 1774
5. South America Thomas Kitchin after D Anville, 124cm x 75cm, 1774
6. First Part of Asia RW Seale, after D Anville, 83cm x 77cm, 1755
7. Second Part of Asia R W Seale, after D Anville, 96cm x 70cm, 1755
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - Please see above
Plate size: - Please see above
Margins: - Please see above
Imperfections:
Margins: - Please see above
Plate area: - Please see above
Verso: - Please see above
Background:
Postlethwayts most noted work, The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce, appeared after he had devoted twenty years to its preparation. The first edition was published in London in instalments between 1751 and 1755, and then in subsequent editions as a two-volume set in 1757, 1766, and 1774. This dictionary was a translation, with large additions and improvements, from Jacques Savary des Bruslons Dictionnaire universal de commerce (1723–1730). Postlethwayts dictionary was a huge storehouse of economic facts, laws and theory and his departures from the French version reflected his greater interest in political problems; his more intense economic nationalism; and his exuberant belief in the economic usefulness of experimental philosophy
In the 1757 edition of the Universal Dictionary, Postlethwayt outlined his vision for the establishment of a British mercantile college to benefit those who intended to work as merchants, or in gathering public revenue, or in merchandizing. He proposed that theoretical training for business should occur in formal academies and involve the study of mercantile computations, foreign exchanges and the intrinsic value of foreign coins, double-entry accounting, languages, geography, and public revenues and related laws. Postlethwayts ideas appear to have been influential in developing the statutes and procedures of the Portuguese School of Commerce, established in Lisbon in 1759.
It is documented that Thomas Jefferson gave a copy of this dictonary to his son in law, Thomas Mann Randolph, and as a prolific reader we must assumed also read by Jefferson.
Postlethwayt, Malachy 1707-1767
Malachy Postlethwayt was a prolific English writer and publicist on matters of mercantilist economics in the 1740s and 1750s. Little is known about his upbringing or formal education, although he is believed to be the brother of James Postlethwayt (d. 1761), a writer on finance and demography. Malachy Postlethwayt was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1734. His writings are claimed by Edgar Johnson to have exerted a good deal of influence on the trend of British economic thought.
Postlethwayt was alleged to be propagandist for the mercantilist endeavours of the Royal Africa Company, whose interests were well served by his publications The African Trade, the Great Pillar and Supporter of the British Plantation Trade in North America (1745) and The National and Private Advantages of the African Trade Considered (1746). These works supported a strategy of British commercial and manufacturing expansion through trade with Africa and the colonies, and promoted the importance of slavery for British commerce and industry.
Postlethwayts most noted work, The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce, appeared after he had devoted twenty years to its preparation. The first edition was published in London in instalments between 1751 and 1755, and then in subsequent editions as a two-volume set in 1757, 1766, and 1774. This dictionary was a translation, with large additions and improvements, from Jacques Savary des Bruslons Dictionnaire universal de commerce (1723–1730). Postlethwayts dictionary was a huge storehouse of economic facts, laws and theory and his departures from the French version reflected his greater interest in political problems; his more intense economic nationalism; and his exuberant belief in the economic usefulness of experimental philosophy
In the 1757 edition of the Universal Dictionary, Postlethwayt outlined his vision for the establishment of a British mercantile college to benefit those who intended to work as merchants, or in gathering public revenue, or in merchandizing. He proposed that theoretical training for business should occur in formal academies and involve the study of mercantile computations, foreign exchanges and the intrinsic value of foreign coins, double-entry accounting, languages, geography, and public revenues and related laws. Postlethwayts ideas appear to have been influential in developing the statutes and procedures of the Portuguese School of Commerce, established in Lisbon in 1759.
Postlethwayts most important contribution to economic literature is regarded by many to be Britains Commercial Interest Explained and Improved (1757), in which he outlines his concept of physical commerce and the policies England should follow to attain commercial parity with foreign rivals.
Whether Postlethwayts writings were his original thoughts and words is a matter for conjecture. His Universal Dictionary included ideas taken from fifty other past or contemporary writers and that it had scattered throughout it practically all of Richard Cantillons Essai sur la nature du commerce en général (Essay on the Nature of Commerce in General, 1755). Although Postlethwayt was alleged widely to be a plagiarist, this accusation is believed to be exaggerated.
Postlethwayt died suddenly on September 13, 1767, and was buried in the Old Street Churchyard, Clerkenwell, in London.
Postlethwayt also published:
- The African Trade the great Pillar and Support of the British Plantation Trade in America, &c., 1745.
- The Natural and Private Advantages of the African Trade considered, &c., 1746.
- Britains Commercial Interest Explained, Vol. I of his Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce, 1747.[5]
- Considerations on the making of Bar Iron with Pitt or Sea Coal Fire, &c. In a Letter to a Member of the House of Commons, London, 1747.
- Considerations on the Revival of the Royal-British Assiento, between his Catholic Majesty and the … South-Sea Company. With an … attempt to unite the African-Trade to that of the South-Sea Company, by Act of Parliament, London, 1749.
- The Merchants Public Counting House, or New Mercantile Institution, &c., London, 1750.
- A Short State of the Progress of the French Trade and Navigation, &c., London, 1756.
- Great Britains True System. … To which is prefixed an Introduction relative to the Forming a New Plan of British Politicks with respect to our Foreign Affairs, &c., London, 1757.
- Britains Commercial Interest explained and improved, in a Series of Dissertations on several important Branches of her Trade and Police. … Also … the Advantages which would accrue … from an Union with Ireland, 2 vols., London, 1757; 2nd edit., With … a clear View of the State of our Plantations in America, &c., London, 1759.
- In Honour to the Administration. The importance of the African Expedition considered, &c., London, 1758
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
1787 Samuel Dunn Large Antique Double Hemisphere World Map w/ Scientific anno.
- Title : A General Map of the World, or Terraqueous Globe with all the New Discoveries and Marginal Delineations, Containing the Most Interesting Particulars in the Solar, Starry and Mundane System...1787
- Date : 1787
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
- Ref: 80778
- Size: 49 1/2in x 41in (1.25m x 1.020mm)
Description:
This monumental very large original copper-plate engraved antique double hemisphere world map, with scientific annotations, by Thomas Dunn, with cartographic material based on information by J. B. B. D Anville, was engraved by Thomas Kitchin in 1787 - dated - and published by Robert Sayer as plate nos. 1-2 in the 1790 edition of General Atlas.
Samuel Dunns General Map of the World, or Terraqueous Globe, is a general world map with all the new discoveries and marginal delineations, containing interesting information relating to the solar, starry and mundane systems, star charts, a map of the Moon, the Solar System, and numerous other features. Dunns large map has an insurmountable amount of general & scientific detail.
This map is one of the most popular and recognizable large maps of the world from the period, having been the map of choice for a number of atlases published by Jefferys, Sayer and Bennett & Laurie and Whittle over a 30 year period. The map was revised several times..
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original & later
Colors used: - Blue, pink, red, green, yellow
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 49 1/2in x 41in (1.25m x 1.020mm)
Plate size: - 49 1/2in x 41in (1.25m x 1.020mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Top margin cropped close to plate-mark
Plate area: - Bottom left Analemma globe restored and backed
Verso: - Some folds strengthened with archival tape
Background:
The double hemisphere globes are surrounded on all sides by detailed scientific calculations and descriptions as well as Northern and Southern Hemisphere star charts, a map of the Moon, a latitude and longitude analemma chart, a map of the Solar System, a mercator projection of the world, an analemma projection, a seasonal chart, a universal scale chart, and numerous smaller diagrams depicting planets and mathematical systems. All text is in English. The survey of this map starts in North America, much of which was, even in 1794, largely unknown.
North America, this map follows shortly after the explorations of captain James Cook in the Arctic and Pacific Northwest, so the general outline of the continent is close to complete. However, when this map was made, few inland expeditions had extended westward in America, beyond the Mississippi. This map notes two separate speculative courses for the apocryphal river of the west, a northern route extending from lake Winnipeg and a southern route passing south of Winnipeg through Pike\'s lake. The River of the West was hopeful dream of French and English explorers who were searching for a water passage through North America to the Pacific. In concept, should such a route be found, it would have become an important trade artery allowing the British and French, whose colonies dominated the eastern parts of North America, to compete with the Spanish for control of the lucrative Asia-Pacific trade. These earlier speculative cartographers didn\'t realize that the bulk of the Rocky Mountains stood between them and their plans. The kingdom of Quivira, which is one of the lands associated with Spanish legends of the Seven Cities of Gold is located slightly south of the western rivers. In this area we can also find Drake\'s Harbor or Port de la Bodega and Albion. Drake\'s Harbor is where Sir Francis Drake supposedly landed during his circumnavigation of the globe in 1580. Drake wintered in this harbor and used the abundant resources of the region to repair his ships. He also claimed the lands for England dubbing them New Albion. Although the true location of Drake\'s port is unknown, most place it much further to the north. By situating it and consequently New Albion further to the south, Dunn is advocating a British rather than Spanish claim to this region. On the Eastern coast of North America we find a fledgling United States extending from Georgia to Maine. Dunn names Boston, New York, Charleston, Long Island, and Philadelphia, as well as the important smaller towns of Jamestown, Williamsburg and Edonton.
South America, exhibits a typically accurate coastline and limited knowledge of the interior beyond Peru and the populated coastlands. A few islands are noted off the coast, including the Galapagos, which are referred to as the Inchanted Islands. The Amazon is vague with many of its tributaries drawn in speculatively. Dunn and d\'Anville have done away with the popular representation of Manoa or El Dorado in Guyana, but a vestigial Lake Parima is evident. Further south, the Laguna de los Xarayes, another apocryphal destination, is drawn at the northernmost terminus of the Paraguay River. The Xaraiés, meaning Masters of the River were an indigenous people occupying what are today parts of Brazil\'s Matte Grosso and the Pantanal. When Spanish and Portuguese explorers first navigated up the Paraguay River, as always in search of El Dorado, they encountered the vast Pantanal flood plain at the height of its annual inundation. Understandably misinterpreting the flood plain as a gigantic inland sea, they named it after the local inhabitants, the Xaraies. The Laguna de los Xarayes almost immediately began to appear on early maps of the region and, at the same time, almost immediately took on a legendary aspect as the gateway to El Dorado.
Across the Atlantic in Africa we find the situation in South America mirrored - that is, the coasts are well defined by the interior is vague. The Nile River follows the Ptolemaic course with a presumed source in two lakes at the base of the \'Mountains of the Moon.\' Further east, the Niger River is well mapped but gets lost as it flows inland. There is no suggestion of its outlet into the Gulf of Guinea, which at the time had not been considered. In the southern part of Africa we fine an elongated lake without a northern border labeled Massi. This is probably an embryonic form of Lake Malawi. Also in this area, we encounter the Kingdom of Monomatapa and the mountain range called the \'Backbone of the World.\' This region of Africa held a particular fascination for Europeans since the Portuguese first encountered it in the 16th century. At the time, this area was a vast empire called Mutapa or Monomotapa that maintained an active trading network with faraway partners in India and Asia. As the Portuguese presence in the area increased in the 17th century, the Europeans began to note that Monomatapa was particularly rich in gold. They were also impressed with the numerous well crafted stone structures, including the mysterious nearby ruins of Great Zimbabwe. This combination led many Europeans to believe that King Solomon\'s Mines, a sort of African El Dorado, must be hidden in this region. Monomotapa did in fact have rich gold mines in the 16th and 17th centuries, but most of these had been exhausted by the 1700s.
Asia is exceptionally well mapped reflecting the most recent information available in Europe - especially regarding the explorations of Vitus Bering and Tschirikow in the Siberian Arctic. Notes Macau, Formosa (Tay-oan), numerous silk route cities, the straits of Sin Capura (Singapore), Beijing (Peking), Edo (Tokyo) and Bombay.
Australia appears in full as New Holland or Terra Australis. Names numerous points along the coast with associated notes regarding the activities of various explorers. Van Diemen\'s Land or Tasmania is curiously attached to the mainland - an error that many earlier maps had long ago corrected. Further east New Zealand is exceptionally well formed. Most of the region has been thoroughly mapped by Cook, though several of the cartographic errors perpetuated by Quiros are present. There is little trace of either Antarctica or the Great Southern continent, though Bouvet\'s Island does appear as \'Sandwich Land.\'
Throughout the map we can also find the routes of numerous important explorers including Middleton, Anson, Bougainville, Cook, the Resolution, the Spanish Galleon Carlos, Bouvet, and others. Often their landings and important discoveries are also noted.
Dunn, Samuel d. 1794
Samuel Dunn was a British mathematician and amateur astronomer.
He was a native of Crediton, Devonshire. His father died at Crediton in 1744. He wrote in his will:.....
In 1743, when the first great fire broke out and destroyed the west town, I had been some time keeping a school and teaching writing, accounts, navigation, and other mathematical science, although not above twenty years of age; then I moved to the schoolhouse at the foot of Bowdown [now Bowden] Hill, and taught there till Christmas 1751, when I came to London.....
The schoolhouse was the place where the English schoo\\\" was kept previously to its union with the blue school in 1821. In London, Dunn taught in different schools, and gave private lessons.
In 1757, he came before the public as the inventor of the universal planispheres, or terrestrial and celestial globes in plano, four large stereographical maps, with a transparent index placed over each map.....
whereby the circles of the sphere are instantaneously projected on the plane of the meridian for any latitude, and the problems of geography, astronomy, and navigation wrought with the same certainty and ease as by the globes themselves, without the help of scale and compasses, pen and ink.....
He published an account of their Description and Use, 2nd edition, octavo, London, 1759. From the preface, it appears that in 1758 Dunn had become master of an academy for boarding and qualifying young gentlemen in arts, sciences, and languages, and for business, at Chelsea. It was at Ormond House, where there was a good observatory.
On 1 January 1760, he made the observation of a remarkable comet; other discoveries he communicated to the Royal Society. Towards the close of 1763, he gave up the school at Chelsea, and fixing himself at Brompton Park, near Kensington, resumed once more his private teaching. In 1764 he made a short tour through France. In 1774, when residing at 6 Clements Inn, near Temple Bar, he published his excellent New Atlas of the Mundane System, or of Geography and Cosmography, describing the Heavens and the Earth. … The whole elegantly engraved on sixty-two copper plates. With a general introduction, folio, London. About this time his reputation led to his being appointed mathematical examiner of the candidates for the East India Company\\\'s service.
Under the companys auspices he was enabled to publish in a handsome form several of his more important works. Such were:
1. A New and General Introduction to Practical Astronomy, with its application to Geography … Topography, octavo, London, 1774.
2. The Navigators Guide to the Oriental or Indian Seas, or the Description and Use of a Variation Chart of the Magnetic Needle, designed for shewing the Longitude throughout the principal parts of the Atlantic, Ethiopic, and Southern Oceans, octavo, London (1775).
3. A New Epitome of Practical Navigation, or Guide to the Indian Seas, containing the Elements of Mathematical Learning, used … in the Theory and Practice of Nautical affairs; the Theory of Navigation. ..; the Method of Correcting and Determining the Longitude at Sea …; the Practice of Navigation in all kinds of Sailing (with copper plates), octavo, London, 1777, and
4. The Theory and Practice of the Longitude at Sea … with copper plates, octavo, London, 1778; second edition, enlarged, quarto, London, 1786.
He also methodised, corrected, and further enlarged a goodly quarto, entitled A New Directory for the East Indies … being a work originally begun upon the plan of the Oriental Neptune, augmented and improved by Mr. Willm. Herbert, Mr. Willm. Nichelson, and others, London, 1780, which reached a fifth edition the same year. Dunn was living at 8 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, in July 1777, but by September 1780 had taken up his abode at 1 Boar\\\'s Head Court, Fleet Street, where he continued for the remainder of his life.
He died in January 1794. His will, dated 5 January 1794, was proved at London, on the 20 January by his kinsman, William Dunn, officer of excise of London (registered in P.C.C., 16, Holman). Therein he describes himself as teacher of the mathematics and master for the longitude at sea, and desires to be buried in the parish church belonging to the place where I shall happen to inhabit a little time before my decease. He names seven relations to whom he left £20 each; but to his wife, Elizabeth Dunn, who hath withdrawn herself from me near thirty years, the sum only of ten pounds. No children are mentioned.
He also requested the corporation of Crediton to provide always and have a master of the school at the foot of Bowden Hill residing therein, of the church of England, but not in holy orders, an able teacher of writing, navigation, the lunar method of taking the longitude at sea, planning, drawing, and surveying, with all mathematical science. For this purpose he left £30 a year. Six boys were to be taught, with a preference to his own descendants. The stock thus bequeathed produced in 1823 dividends amounting to £25 4/- per annum, the school being known by the name of Dunn\\\'s School.
Dunn contributed nine papers to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, of which body, however, he was not a fellow. On the title-page of his Atlas he appears as a member of the Philosophical Society at Philadelphia, America. A few of his letters to Thomas Birch are preserved, and one to Emanuel Mendes da Costa
1638 Joan Blaeu Antique Map of America - Americae nova Tabula
- Title : Americae nova Tabula Auct: Guiljesino Blaeuw
- Date : 1638
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
- Ref # : 50685
- Size : 23in x 18 1/2in (585mm x 450mm)
Description:
This magnificent, classic hand coloured original antique map of America 2nd State - the quintessential image of 17th America - was published in the 1638 French edition of Joan Blaeus Atlas Novus. This map is in wonderful condition with a few minor repairs as mentioned below.
General Condition:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - White
Age of map color: - Original color
Colors used: - Pink, green, yellow, blue, red
General color appearance: - Authentic & beautiful
Paper size: - 23in x 18 1/2in (585mm x 450mm)
Plate size: - 22in x 16 1/2in (555mm x 415mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Professional repair to centerfold, no loss.
Plate area: - Small professional repair to below Atlantic monster. Center-fold creases & re-joined at bottom, slight separation
Verso: - Creasing and restoration to center-fold, top & left margin, no loss
Background:
Originally issued by Joan Blaeus father, Willem, as early as 1617, this general map of the Americas was one of the longest lived plates in the atlas, having been used as an atlas map since 1630.
Here is the general seventeenth century European view of the Western Hemisphere: the delineation of the coasts and the nomenclature of the Pacific as well as the Atlantic coasts are basically Spanish in origin and follow the maps of the Fleming Abraham Ortelius and his countryman Cornelis Wytfliet. To these, Willem Blaeu inserted, on the east coast, the English names given by the Roanoke colonists in Virginia, and by Martin Frobisher, John Davis and Henry Hudson in the far north. In Florida and along the St Lawrence, Blaeu added the names given by the French settlers, almost the only memorials to their ill-fated venture in Florida during the latter part of the sixteenth century.
When Blaeu first made his map in the early years of the seventeenth century, Europeans still had no real knowledge of the nature of the Mississippi system. From the expedition journals of Hernando de Soto (1539 - 1543) they had inferred an extensive range of mountains trending eastwards to the north of the Gulf of Mexico in la Florida apparently precluding a great river system. The Great Lakes were as yet unknown although by the time Blaeu issued this map in its atlas form in the Huron region together with the hearsay accounts from Coral Indians were becoming well known through his 1632 map of the region. Evidently, this appears to have been unknown to Blaeu at the time, but surprisingly, he never incorporated the information on later printings of the map. The same applies to Manhattan and Long Island as well, despite the fact that only a short distance from Amsterdam, the Leiden academic Johannes D Late had published the first edition of his monumental work on the Americas which provided source material for any number of maps of the Americas throughout the remainder of the century and beyond.
In common with the other general continental maps in Blaeus atlas's, he has provided perspective plans or views of settlements in the Americas, including Havana, St Domingo, Cartagena, Mexico, Cusco, Potisi, I.la Moca in Chile, Rio Janeiro and Olianda in Pharnambucco, as well as the vignette illustrations of native figures taken from the accounts of John White (Virginia) or Hans Staden (Brazil) and others. (Ref: Burden; RGS; Koeman; Tooley)
1613 Mercator Antique Map of America & The Great Southern Land - Terra Australis
- Title : America sive India Nova. ad magna Gerardi Mercatoris aui Universalis imitationem in compendium redacta. Per Michaelem Mercatorem Duysburgensem
- Ref #: 61033
- Size: 20 1/2in x 17 1/2in (510mm x 445mm)
- Date : 1613
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
Description:
This fine beautifully hand coloured original antique early map of America and the Great Southern Continent (Terra Australis) that was envisaged in the southern Hemisphere, prior to the discovery of Australia by Captain Cook in 1769 - the only map attributed to Gerard Mercator's Grandson Michael - was published in the 1633 French edition of Mercator's Atlas.
This map is magnificent with beautiful original hand colouring, wide margins and stable paper. Backed with transparent archival Japanese paper. Original colouring such as this is scarce and hard to find.
Condition Report:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, red, green, orange, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 21 1/2in x 17 3/4in (545mm x 450mm)
Plate size: - 18 1/2in x 14 3/4in (470mm x 376mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light soiling in margins
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background: Largely based on Rumold Mercator's world map of 1587, this map aptly reflects 16th-century knowledge, theories and suppositions regarding the New World. Naturally, most of this new knowledge was coastal, and configurations of any large areas were greatly hampered by the lack of a sound means of determining longitude. Nevertheless, the collective accomplishment of explorers and mapmakers represented in this map is astounding, showing in a generally correct way the vast extent of the New World. "A few of the most famous theories are still present: a large inland lake in Canada, two of the four islands of the North Pole, a bulge to the west coast of South America and the large southern continent" (Burden).
The map appeared in 1595 and 1606 editions of the Atlantis Pars Altera , after which the plate was sold to Jodocus Hondius, who reissued the maps in varying editions through 1639. The present example includes French text on verso, confirming it to be a Hondius issue.
Several of the more fascinating theories are present, including the multiple islands of the North Polar Sea, bulging South America and vast unknown southern continent. The St. Lawrence crosses half the continent. No sign of the English in Virginia. The search for a water course across North America is interupted only by some mid-continental mountains. Evidence of the Spanish explorations in the Southwest is present and the Colorado and Gila Rivers already reflect a good knowledge of this area, as does the peninsular Baja California, based upon Uloa's work.
The depiction of the NW Passage and Western North America are also of great interest. Annotations reference the voyages of Columbus and Magellan.(Ref: Burden; Koeman; Tooley; M&B)
1806 John Barrow Antique Atlas Travel Book to Vietnam via Brazil & South Africa
- Title : A Voyage to Cochinchina, in the years 1792 and 1793. to which is annexed an account of a journey, made in the years 1801 and 1802, to the residence of the chief of the Booshuana Nation, being the remotest point in the interior of Southern Africa
- Size: 4to (10 1/2in x 8 1/4in)
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
- Date : 1806
- Ref #: 61010
Description:
This rare publication of the first English edition of Sir Johns Barrows voyages to Cochin-China, (Vietnam) via Rio de Janeiro, the South African Cape & Batavia, Java in 1792 & 93, was published by Strahan and Preston for T. Cadell and T. Davies, London in 1806. 447 pages with 19 hand coloured plates & 2 hand coloured maps, as called for.
The book has been beautifully rebound in half calf with gilt text to spine & new end papers. Library stamps to the back of each plate & pages TP, 1, 101, 401 & 447. Staining to title page to page 23 & light browning to several pages after, repair to page 311 with browning.
Plates & maps in VG condition in fresh condition and beautiful hand colouring. 447 pages containing 19 hand colored prints, including one folding view of Rio, by T. Medland after Samuel Daniell and W. Alexander, and two folding hand coloured maps, the first a plan of the harbor and town of Rio de Janeiro, the second a Chart of the Cape & Southern Africa.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 11in x 7 1/2in (280mm x 190mm) Plates
Plate size: - 14in x 11in (355mm x 280mm) Fold out plates
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Age toning
Plate area: - Age toning, repair to page 311
Verso: - Age toning
Background:
A Voyage to Cochinchina, in the years 1792 and 1793 first edition of the first illustrated English work on Vietnam. A description of the outward voyage of Lord Macartneys embassy to China. The voyage visited Madeira, the Canary Islands, and Rio de Janeiro; a description of that city and of Brazil in general is given. Touching at Tristan da Cunha, the ship rounded the Cape and eventually reached Cochin China via the city of Batavia on Java. The volume is also of Cook interest, as it describes finding Captain Cooks Resolution transformed into a smuggling whaler under the French flag. The substance of the sketch of Cochinchina is taken from a manuscript memoir drawn up by Captain Barissy, a French naval officer who, having several years commanded a frigate in the service of the King of Cochinchina and being an able and intelligent man, had the means and the opportunity of collecting accurate information .
The African part of the volume - which might perhaps, with more propriety, have formed an appendix to Barrows South African travels - relates to his two missions into the interior in order to reconcile the Kaffirs and Boers and to obtain more accurate topographical knowledge of the colony. He visited most parts of the Cape Colony, including the countries of the Kaffirs, Hottentots and Bushmen. He conducted the first census of Cape Colony, undertook a few amateur geological surveys, and contrived an interview with Shaka, king of the Zulus (Howgego). The son of a Lancashire journeyman tanner, Barrow was initially educated in the local grammar school, subsequently working as as a clerk in a Liverpool iron foundry, as a landsman on a Greenland whaler, and as a mathematics teacher in a Greenwich academy preparing young men for a naval career (ODNB). At this time he gave private tuition to Thomas Staunton, son of Sir George Staunton, to whom, as he later admitted, he was indebted for all the good fortune of his life, which began with his service as comptroller of household to Lord Macartneys embassy. Today, Barrow is perhaps best known for his Mutiny on the Bounty (1831) but, during his lifetime, his accounts of his travels in eastern Asia and southern Africa, published between 1801 and 1807, were better known and more influential. These established new standards for travel writing His interests ranged widely, but the great bulk of his output had a geographical focus, usually with an underlying imperial theme and a belief in progress and the superiority of British civilization Collectively, these activities established his pre-eminence within British geography. The account is superbly illustrated with aquatints of views, types, and natural history specimens, Abbey commending the aquatinting as of excellent quality. Bookplate of Charles Constant de Rebecque to the front pastedown, together with a modern collectors plate. A Swiss, a cousin of Benjamin Consant, Constant de Rebecque acted as an agent for the HEIC, making three trips to China for them, and publishing an account of his travels, Récits de Trois Voyages à la Chine.
Cochinchina is a historical exonym for part or the whole of Vietnam, depending on the contexts, but it was commonly used to refer to the region south of the Gianh River. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Vietnam was divided between the Trịnh lords to the north and the Nguyễn lords to the south. The two domains bordered each other on the Son–Gianh River. The northern section was called Tonkin by Europeans, and the southern part, Đàng Trong, was called Cochinchina by most Europeans and Quinam by the Dutch
Barrow, Sir John 1764 - 1848
Barrow, 1st Baronet, was an English civil servant, geographer, linguist and writer. Barrows legacy has been met with mixed analysis. Some historians regard Barrow as an instrument of imperialism who portrayed Africa as a resource rich land devoid of any human or civilized elements. Nonetheless, other historians consider Barrow to have promoted humanitarianism and rights for South Africans.
Barrow was born the only child of Roger Barrow, a tanner in the village of Dragley Beck, in the parish of Ulverston, Lancashire. He was schooled at Town Bank grammar school, Ulverston, but left at age 13 to found a Sunday school for the poor.
Barrow was employed as superintending clerk of an iron foundry at Liverpool. At only 16, he went on a whaling expedition to Greenland. By his twenties, he was teaching mathematics, in which he had always excelled, at a private school in Greenwich.
Barrow taught mathematics to the son of Sir George Leonard Staunton; through Stauntons interest, he was attached on the first British embassy to China from 1792 to 1794 as comptroller of the household to Lord Macartney. He soon acquired a good knowledge of the Chinese language, on which he subsequently contributed articles to the Quarterly Review; and the account of the embassy published by Sir George Staunton records many of Barrows valuable contributions to literature and science connected with China.
Barrow ceased to be officially connected with Chinese affairs after the return of the embassy in 1794, but he always took much interest in them, and on critical occasions was frequently consulted by the British government.
Some historians attribute the stagnation thesis to Barrow; that China was an extremely civilized nation that was in a process of decay by the time of European contact.
In 1797, Barrow accompanied Lord Macartney as private secretary in his important and delicate mission to settle the government of the newly acquired colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Barrow was entrusted with the task of reconciling the Boer settlers and the native Black population and of reporting on the country in the interior. In the course of the trip, he visited all parts of the colony; when he returned, he was appointed auditor-general of public accounts. He then decided to settle in South Africa, married, and bought a house in 1800 in Cape Town. However, the surrender of the colony at the peace of Amiens (1802) upset this plan.
During his travels through South Africa, Barrow compiled copious notes and sketches of the countryside that he was traversing. The outcome of his journeys was a map which, despite its numerous errors, was the first published modern map of the southern parts of the Cape Colony. Barrows descriptions of South Africa greatly influenced Europeans understanding of South Africa and its peoples. William John Burchell (1781–1863) was particularly scathing: As to the miserable thing called a map, which has been prefixed to Mr. Barrows quarto, I perfectly agree with Professor Lichtenstein, that it is so defective that it can seldom be found of any use.
Barrow returned to Britain in 1804 and was appointed Second Secretary to the Admiralty by Viscount Melville, a post which he held for forty years – apart from a short period in 1806–1807 when there was a Whig government in power. Lord Grey took office as Prime Minister in 1830, and Barrow was especially requested to remain in his post, starting the principle that senior civil servants stay in office on change of government and serve in a non-partisan manner. Indeed, it was during his occupancy of the post that it was renamed Permanent Secretary. Barrow enjoyed the esteem and confidence of all the eleven chief lords who successively presided at the Admiralty board during that period, and more especially of King William IV while lord high admiral, who honoured him with tokens of his personal regard.
In his position at the Admiralty, Barrow was a great promoter of Arctic voyages of discovery, including those of John Ross, William Edward Parry, James Clark Ross and John Franklin. The Barrow Strait in the Canadian Arctic as well as Point Barrow and the city of Barrow in Alaska are named after him. He is reputed to have been the initial proposer of Saint Helena as the new place of exile for Napoleon Bonaparte following the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Barrow was a fellow of the Royal Society and received the degree of LL.D from the University of Edinburgh in 1821. A baronetcy was conferred on him by Sir Robert Peel in 1835. He was also a member of the Raleigh Club, a forerunner of the Royal Geographical Society.
Barrow retired from public life in 1845 and devoted himself to writing a history of the modern Arctic voyages of discovery (1846), as well as his autobiography, published in 1847. He died suddenly on 23 November 1848. The Sir John Barrow monument was built in his honour on Hoad Hill overlooking his home town of Ulverston, though locally it is more commonly called Hoad Monument. Mount Barrow and Barrow Island in Australia are believed to have been named for him.
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
1691 Alexis Hubert Jaillot Large Antique Twin Hemisphere World Map, California Island
- Title : Mappe-monde Geo-Hydrographique ou Description Generale du Globe Terrestre et Aquatique en Deux-Plans-Hemipsheres ou son Exactement Remarquees en General Toutes les Parties de la Terre et de L Eau, suivant les Relations les plus Nouvelles, par le S. Sanson Geographe Ordinaire du Roy 1691
- Ref #: 93406
- Size: 37in x 24 1/2in (940mm x 620mm)
- Date : 1691
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
Description:
This very large original hand coloured copper plate engraved antique Twin Hemisphere World map by Alexis Hubert Jaillot - after Nicolas sanson - was engraved in 1691 - dated - and was published by Jaillot in his large Atlas Nouveau.
There were 4 plates engraved for this map between 1674 & 1705. This map is from the third plate, first engraved in 1691.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Light and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 37in x 24 1/2in (940mm x 620mm)
Plate size: - 31in x 23in (887mm x 541mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Age toning, light staining in bottom right margin
Plate area: - Age toning, uplift along centerfold
Verso: - Age toning, light staining on verso not affecting the image
Background:
As was common at the time of publication California is depicted as an island. The idea of an insular California first appeared as a work of fiction in Garci Rodriguez de Montalvos c. 1510 romance Las Sergas de Esplandian, where he writes Know, that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons. Baja California was subsequently discovered in 1533 by Fortun Ximenez, who had been sent to the area by Hernan Cortes. When Cortez himself traveled to Baja, he must have had Montalvos novel in mind, for he immediately claimed the Island of California for the King. By the late 16th and early 17th century ample evidence had been amassed, by explorations of the region by Francisco de Ulloa, Hernando de Alarcon and others, that California was in fact a Peninsula and not an island. However, by this time other factors were in play. Francis Drake had sailed north and claimed New Albion near modern day Washington or Vancouver for England. The Spanish thus needed to promote Cortes claim on the Island of California to preempt English claims on the western coast of North America. The significant influence of the Spanish crown on European cartographers caused a major resurgence of the Insular California theory, of which Sanson - hence Jaillot - was a primary proponent, in the mid to late 17th century. Shortly after this map was published Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit missionary, traveled overland from Mexico to California, proving conclusively the peninsularity of California. But the myth was upheld in many maps until as late as the mid 18th century.
Traveling northwest, away from the mainland, is the land of Terre de Jesso or Je Co. or Terre de la Compagnie. Though Yesso or Jesso is a name usually associated with Hokkaido (which here is drawn as part of mainland Asia), this land mass is more commonly called Gama or Gamaland. Gama was supposedly discovered in the 17th century by a mysterious figure known as Jean de Gama. Various subsequent navigators claim to have seen this land and it appeared in numerous maps well into the late 18th century. At times it was associated with Hokkaido, in Japan, and at other times with the mainland of North America. On this map it has the resemblance to Gerhard Mullers peninsula which emerged in the late 18th century. Based on numerous sightings but no significant exploration of the Aleutian Islands, Muller postulated that the archipelago was in fact a single land mass. This he mapped extending from the North American mainland towards Asia much as the Terre de Compagnie does on this map. It is not inconceivable that navigators sailing in the northern seas from Asia could have made this same error in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Moving east of California into the North American mainland are the Spanish colony of New Mexico. Santa Fe, its capital, had been founded in 1610 and here it is situated far to the north of its actual location, on the Colorado (Rio Norte) rather than the Rio Grande or Santa Fe River. It also appears near a mysterious lake named Apache. The Apache Lake is drawn as the source of the Rio Norte or Colorado River. Though the origins of this lake are somewhat mysterious, they may be associated with Native American reports of the Great Salt Lake or another lake in the region brought back by the Onate and Coronado expeditions.
In the eastern part of New Mexico territory is the land of Quivira. Quivira, along with Cibola, was one of the Seven Cities of Gold of Spanish folklore. The story beings in 1150 when Merida, Spain, was conquered by the Moors from North Africa. The citys seven bishops fled the city taking with them much of the cities riches. Legend told that they each founded a great city in a far away unknown land. With the discovery of the New World and the fabulous riches plundered by Cortez and Pizarro, the Seven Cities became associated with New World legends. Coronado, hearing tales of the rich Aztec homeland of Azatlan somewhere to the north believed he was hunting for Quivira in what is today the American southwest. It was subsequently mapped and sought, though like most kingdoms of gold never found, for some 300 years before disappearing from maps in the early 19th century.
To the north Sanson maps is a barely recognizable Hudson Bay with several openings to the west. Beyond the waters of Hudson Bay and north of Insular California, Sanson leaves the largely unknown land blank, leaving open the hope of a Northwest Passage. Just to the south of the Hudson Bay we see a very early mapping of the Great Lakes. Ontario, Erie, and Huron are recognizable, but both Lake Michigan and Lake Superior open speculatively to the west, again suggesting the possibility of navigable water route to the Pacific.
On the Eastern coast of North America, Sanson recognizes French Claims to Canada, English claims to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Dutch claims in New Amsterdam (New York), and Swedish claims in New Jersey.
In Spanish Florida, which extends north to include most of the American Southeast, Lake Apalache or the Great Freshwater Lake of the American Southeast is noted. This lake, first mapped by De Bry and Le Moyne in the mid 16th century, is a mis-mapping of Floridas Lake George. While De Bry correctly mapped the lake as part of the River May or St. Johns River, cartographers in Europe erroneously associated it with the Savannah River, which instead of Flowing south from the Atlantic (Like the May), flowed almost directly from the Northwest. Lake Apalache was subsequently relocated somewhere in Carolina or Georgia, where Sanson maps it and where it would remain for several hundred years.
Southward is the well mapped Caribbean and once again the map is rife with cartographic speculation. While the South American coastlands are well mapped, the interior is largely unknown. Explorers throughout the late 16th and early 17th century, enthralled by Pizarros conquests in Peru and tales of other gold rich empires in the interior, were actively seeking El Dorado.
Most Europeans believe that the most likely site of the El Dorado legend was the mythical city of Manoa located by Sanson on the shores of the Lake Parima, near modern day Guyana, Venezuela, or northern Brazil. Manoa was first identified by Sr. Walter Raleigh in 1595. Raleigh did not visit the city of Manoa (which he also believes is El Dorado) himself due to the onset of the rainy season, however he describes the city, based on indigenous accounts, as resting on a salt lake over 200 leagues wide. This lake, though no longer mapped as such, does have some basis in fact. Parts of the Amazon were, at the time dominated by a large and powerful Indigenous trading nation known as the Manoa. The Manoa traded the length and breadth of the Amazon. The onset of the rainy season inundated the great savannahs of the Rupununi, Takutu, and Rio Branco or Parima rives. This inundation briefly connected the Amazon and Orinoco river systems, opening an annual and well used trade route for the Manoans. The Manoans who traded with the Incans in the western Amazon, had access to gold mines on the western slopes of the Andes, and so, when Raleigh saw gold rich Indian traders arriving in Guyana, he made the natural assumption for a gold hungry European in search of El Dorado. When he asked the Orinocans where the traders were from, they could only answer, Manoa. Thus did Lake Parime or Parima and the city of Manoa begin to appear on maps in the early 17th century. The would continue to be mapped in this area until about 1800.
Further south Sanson maps a large and prominent Laguna de Xarayes as the northern terminus of the Paraguay River. The Xarayes, a corruption of Xaraiés meaning Masters of the River, were an indigenous people occupying what are today parts of Brazils Matte Grosso and the Pantanal. When Spanish and Portuguese explorers first navigated up the Paraguay River, as always in search of El Dorado, they encountered the vast Pantanal flood plain at the height of its annual inundation. Understandably misinterpreting the flood plain as a gigantic inland sea, they named it after the local inhabitants, the Xaraies. The Laguna de los Xarayes almost immediately began to appear on early maps of the region and, at the same time, almost immediately took on a legendary aspect. The Lac or Laguna Xarayes was often considered to be a gateway to the Amazon and the Kingdom of El Dorado.
Across the the Atlantic is the well mapped coast of continental Africa, much is unknown of the interior and like South America much speculation and myth abounds. With the Nile, Sanson followed the Ptolemaic two lakes at the base of the Montes de Lune theory. Though Sanson does map both lakes, naming the western lake Zaire, he does not specifically name the Mountains of the Moon (though they are sketched in).
Just south of Sansons Lake Zaire, is the Kingdom of Monomatapa. This region of Africa held a particular fascination for Europeans since the Portuguese first encountered it in the 16th century. At the time, this area was a vast empire called Mutapa or Monomotapa that maintained an active trading network with faraway partners in India and Asia. As the Portuguese presence in the area increased in the 17th century, the Europeans began to note that Monomatapa was particularly rich in gold. They were also impressed with the numerous well crafted stone structures, including the mysterious nearby ruins of Great Zimbabwe. This combination led many Europeans to believe that King Solomons Mines, a sort of African El Dorado, must be hidden in this region. Monomotapa did in fact have rich gold mines in the 16th and 17th centuries, but most have these had been exhausted by the 1700s.
In Asia, Sanson offers us a fairly accurate mapping of Asia Minor, Persia and India. The Capsian Sea is corrected to a north-south axis though is a bit lumpy in form. He names numerous Silk Route cities through Central Asia including Samarkand, Tashkirgit, Bukhara, and Kashgar. Far to the north he associates Mongolia and Siberia with the Biblical lands of Gog and Magog.
Sanson maps, but does not name, the apocryphal Lake of Chiamay roughly in what is today Assam, India. Early cartographers thought that such a lake must exist as the source of four important Southeast Asian river systems including the Irrawaddy, the Dharla, the Chao Phraya, and the Brahmaputra. This lake began to appear in maps of this region as early as the 16th century and persisted well into the mid 18th century. Its origins are unknown but may originate in a lost 16th century geography prepared by the Portuguese scholar Jao de Barros. It was also heavily discussed in the journals of Sven Hedin, who believed it to be associated with Indian mythology that a sacred lake linked several holy subcontinent river systems. There are even records that the King of Siam led an invasionary force to take control of the lake in the 16th century. Nonetheless, the theory of Lake Chimmay was ultimately disproved and it disappeared from maps entirely by the 1760s.
Further east still the Korean peninsula unnaturally narrow. Just offshore the Japanese Islands emerge only to disappear and reappear on the opposite side of the map. The form of the islands approximates accuracy and Edo or Tokyo Bay is clearly recognizable. Several Japanese cities, including Yendo (Edo or Tokyo) are noted. Hokkaido is attached to the continent and the Japanese Kuril Islands extend eastward to meet up the aforementioned Gama Land or Terre de la Compagnie.
To the south Australia itself appears as New Holland. Much of the northern and western shores, including the Gulf of Carpentaria, have been mapped but the eastern shores remain unexplored and the interior entirely unknown. Tasmania, labeled Terre de Diemens appears according to its discovery and mapping by Able Tazman in 1642. A little further south and east is an extremely embryonic New Zealand. There is no trace of the a two island layout or, for that matter, a eastern shoreline. Also in evidence is the mysterious Terre de Quir a great landmass supposedly discovered by the 16th century Spanish navigator and religious zealot Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. Quiros set sail in search of the speculative southern continent and may in fact have discovered several important South Seas islands, however, he stopped just shy of glory and turned around shortly before sighting New Zealand. Even so, Quiros was a voracious self promoter and descriptions of his findings were circulated throughout Europe. Terre de Quir or Terre de Quiros appears on various maps of the region until put to rest by the 18th century explorations of Captain Cook.
Massing at the base of the map is the speculative southern continent or Terre Australe. Long before the discovery of Antarctica, the southern continent, supposedly capping the South Pole, was speculated upon by European geographers in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was thought that the globe was a place of balances and thus geographers presumed the bulk of Eurasia must be counterbalanced by a similar landmass in the Southern Hemisphere, just as, they argued, the Americas counterbalanced Africa and Europe. Many explorers in the 16th and 17th centuries sought the Great Southern continent, including Quiros, Drake, and Cook, but Antarctica itself was not truly discovered until Edward Bransfield and William Smith sighted the Antarctic Peninsula in 1820. All in all a magnificent and fascinating map of the world. (Ref: Shirley; Tooley; M&B)
1812 Conrad Malte Brun Large Quatro Antique World Atlas with 75 Maps
- Title : Atlas Complet du précis de la Geographie universelle. Dressé conformément au Texte de cet Ouvrage et sous les Yeux de L'Auteur, par M. Lapie. (Cet Atlas est formé de 75 Cartes)
- Size: Large Quarto - 14 1/2in x 11in (370mm x 280mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Date : 1812
- Ref #: 31573
Description:
This original large quatro, antique 1st edition atlas by Conrad Matle-Brun Atlas Complet du précis de la Geographie universelle containing 75 hand coloured maps, as called for, was published by Francois Buisson in 1812.
This fine world atlas contains 3 double page and 72 single page maps with original hand colouring on clean heavy paper with a heavy impression. The binding & spine is tight, with worn boards. A beautiful intact clean atlas, now how to find.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 20in x 14in (510mm x 355mm) double page maps
Plate size: - 14in x 10in (355mm x 255mm) single page maps
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Malte-Brun, Conrad 1775 - 1826
Malte-Brun was born Malthe Conrad Bruun - sometimes referred to simply as Malte-Brun - was a Dano-French geographer and journalist. His second son, Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun, was also a geographer. Today he is perhaps best remembered for coining the name for the geographic region Oceania (French Oceanie) around 1812.
Born in Thisted to an administrator of Danish crown lands, Malte-Brun was originally destined for a career as a pastor, but chose instead to attend classes at the University of Copenhagen, and became a supporter of the French Revolution and an activist in favor of freedom of the press. Following the harsh censorship laws instituted by the Danish ruler crown prince Frederick in September 1799, he was indicted because of his many pamphlets which contained outright criticism of the government, which the new censorship laws forbade. A particular cause for offence was a pamphlet he published in 1795 entitled Catechism of the Aristocrat.
The case of Peter Andreas Heiberg, who for similar crimes had been sentenced to exile at Christmas of 1799, did not make Malte-Brun optimistic about his prospects. He had already left the country prior to the court sentence (which was first carried late 1800) and had settled first in Sweden, later in the Free City of Hamburg.
At some point during his exile, he started using his Danish first name, Malthe, as part of his surname, Bruun.
Malte-Brun arrived in France in November 1799, and began work on a geography treatise meant as a gift to his adoptive country. A poem on the death of Andreas Peter Bernstorff which he published during his exile procured for him permission to return to Denmark. But another pamphlet against the aristocracy subjected him to a new prosecution, and he left his country, and finally took up his residence in Paris. In December 1800, the Danish courts pronounced sentence of perpetual banishment against him, which was rescinded about the time of his death. Malte-Brun\'s geography treatise was written with the help of Edme Mentelle, a professor at the Ale Normale; together, they produced Gaographie mathamatique, physique et politique de toutes les parties du monde (6 vols., published between 1803 and 1812).
He was a regular contributor to Journal des dabats. At first opposed the consular government, but subsequently became a zealous imperialist, and after the fall of Napoleon an equally zealous monarchist, publishing in 1824 Traita de la lagitimita considae comme base du droit public de l Europe chratienne.
Aside from his political writings, he devoted himself especially to geographical studies. He was the founder of Les Annales des Voyages (in 1807) and Les Annales des Voyages, de la Gaographie et de l Histoire (in 1819), which encouraged observations and reports as a basis for research. He became well known after contributing Tableau de la Pologne, a treatise on the geography of Poland (in 1807) as the First Empire troops established French tutelage in the region). In 1822-1824, he served as the first general secretary of the newly founded Sociata de Gaographie. Malte-Brun was the first person to suggest importing camels into Australia. See Australian feral camel.
He died in Paris in 1826 as he was drafting the final version of his major work, the Pracis de Gaographie Universelle ou Description de toutes les parties du monde. This appeared in eight volumes (1810 - 29), the last two volumes being by Huot. Malte-Bruns name was given to streets in both Paris (20th arrondissement) and Thisted.
1633 Mercator Antique Map of America & The Great Southern Land - Terra Australis
- Title : America sive India Nova. ad magna Gerardi Mercatoris aui Universalis imitationem in compendium redacta. Per Michaelem Mercatorem Duysburgensem
- Ref #: 61017
- Size: 21 1/2in x 17 3/4in (545mm x 450mm)
- Date : 1633
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
Description:
This fine beautifully hand coloured original antique early map of America and the Great Southern Continent (Terra Australis) that was envisaged in the southern Hemisphere, prior to the discovery of Australia by Captain Cook in 1769 - the only map attributed to Gerard Mercator's Grandson Michael - was published in the 1633 French edition of Mercator's Atlas.
This map is magnificent with beautiful original hand colouring, wide margins and stable paper. Backed with transparent archival Japanese paper. Original colouring such as this is scarce and hard to find.
Condition Report:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, red, green, orange, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 21 1/2in x 17 3/4in (545mm x 450mm)
Plate size: - 18 1/2in x 14 3/4in (470mm x 376mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Uniform age toning
Plate area: - Uniform age toning, light creasing & uplift along center-fold
Verso: - Backed with transparent archival Japanese paper
Background: Largely based on Rumold Mercator's world map of 1587, this map aptly reflects 16th-century knowledge, theories and suppositions regarding the New World. Naturally, most of this new knowledge was coastal, and configurations of any large areas were greatly hampered by the lack of a sound means of determining longitude. Nevertheless, the collective accomplishment of explorers and mapmakers represented in this map is astounding, showing in a generally correct way the vast extent of the New World. "A few of the most famous theories are still present: a large inland lake in Canada, two of the four islands of the North Pole, a bulge to the west coast of South America and the large southern continent" (Burden).
The map appeared in 1595 and 1606 editions of the Atlantis Pars Altera , after which the plate was sold to Jodocus Hondius, who reissued the maps in varying editions through 1639. The present example includes French text on verso, confirming it to be a Hondius issue.
Several of the more fascinating theories are present, including the multiple islands of the North Polar Sea, bulging South America and vast unknown southern continent. The St. Lawrence crosses half the continent. No sign of the English in Virginia. The search for a water course across North America is interupted only by some mid-continental mountains. Evidence of the Spanish explorations in the Southwest is present and the Colorado and Gila Rivers already reflect a good knowledge of this area, as does the peninsular Baja California, based upon Uloa's work.
The depiction of the NW Passage and Western North America are also of great interest. Annotations reference the voyages of Columbus and Magellan.(Ref: Burden; Koeman; Tooley; M&B)
1719 Alexis Jaillot Large Antique Twin Hemisphere World Map Scarce Final Edition
Antique Map
- Title : Mappe-monde Geo-Hydrographique ou Description Generale du Globe Terrestre et Aquatique en Deux-Plans-Hemipsheres ou son Exactement Remarquees en General Toutes les Parties de la Terre et de L Eau, suivant les Relations les plus Nouvelles, par le S. Sanson Geographe Ordinaire du Roy 1719....(1706)
- Date : 1719
- Size: 36 3/4in x 24 1/2in (930mm x 620mm)
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
- Ref: 35648
Description:
This very large original hand coloured copper plate engraved antique Twin Hemisphere World map by Alexis Hubert Jaillot - after Nicolas Sanson - was engraved in 1719 - dated - and was published in the last edition of Alex Jaillot's large Elephant Atlas Nouveau.
This map is from the first plate (of 4) published by Jaillot containing the signature of the engraver Louis Cordier. There were at least 9 states of this first plate in 1674, 1679, 1681, 1684, 1691, 1696, 1700, 1706 & 1719. There was little change in these plate with the exception of the 1706 & 1719 editions which incorporated much of the new information from North America, Asia, Africa and the Pacific.
This last 1719 edition had a limited publication and is therefore scarce.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 36 3/4in x 24 1/2in (930mm x 620mm)
Plate size: - 35 1/2in x 22in (887mm x 541mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - Light wear along centerfold, light staining adjacent to middle of centerfold
Verso: - Staining on verso not affecting the image.
Background:
As was common at the time of publication California is depicted as an island. The idea of an insular California first appeared as a work of fiction in Garci Rodriguez de Montalvos c. 1510 romance Las Sergas de Esplandian, where he writes Know, that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons. Baja California was subsequently discovered in 1533 by Fortun Ximenez, who had been sent to the area by Hernan Cortes. When Cortez himself traveled to Baja, he must have had Montalvos novel in mind, for he immediately claimed the Island of California for the King. By the late 16th and early 17th century ample evidence had been amassed, by explorations of the region by Francisco de Ulloa, Hernando de Alarcon and others, that California was in fact a Peninsula and not an island. However, by this time other factors were in play. Francis Drake had sailed north and claimed New Albion near modern day Washington or Vancouver for England. The Spanish thus needed to promote Cortes claim on the Island of California to preempt English claims on the western coast of North America. The significant influence of the Spanish crown on European cartographers caused a major resurgence of the Insular California theory, of which Sanson - hence Jaillot - was a primary proponent, in the mid to late 17th century. Shortly after this map was published Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit missionary, traveled overland from Mexico to California, proving conclusively the peninsularity of California. But the myth was upheld in many maps until as late as the mid 18th century.
Traveling northwest, away from the mainland, is the land of Terre de Jesso or Je Co. or Terre de la Compagnie. Though Yesso or Jesso is a name usually associated with Hokkaido (which here is drawn as part of mainland Asia), this land mass is more commonly called Gama or Gamaland. Gama was supposedly discovered in the 17th century by a mysterious figure known as Jean de Gama. Various subsequent navigators claim to have seen this land and it appeared in numerous maps well into the late 18th century. At times it was associated with Hokkaido, in Japan, and at other times with the mainland of North America. On this map it has the resemblance to Gerhard Mullers peninsula which emerged in the late 18th century. Based on numerous sightings but no significant exploration of the Aleutian Islands, Muller postulated that the archipelago was in fact a single land mass. This he mapped extending from the North American mainland towards Asia much as the Terre de Compagnie does on this map. It is not inconceivable that navigators sailing in the northern seas from Asia could have made this same error in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Moving east of California into the North American mainland are the Spanish colony of New Mexico. Santa Fe, its capital, had been founded in 1610 and here it is situated far to the north of its actual location, on the Colorado (Rio Norte) rather than the Rio Grande or Santa Fe River. It also appears near a mysterious lake named Apache. The Apache Lake is drawn as the source of the Rio Norte or Colorado River. Though the origins of this lake are somewhat mysterious, they may be associated with Native American reports of the Great Salt Lake or another lake in the region brought back by the Onate and Coronado expeditions.
In the eastern part of New Mexico territory is the land of Quivira. Quivira, along with Cibola, was one of the Seven Cities of Gold of Spanish folklore. The story beings in 1150 when Merida, Spain, was conquered by the Moors from North Africa. The citys seven bishops fled the city taking with them much of the cities riches. Legend told that they each founded a great city in a far away unknown land. With the discovery of the New World and the fabulous riches plundered by Cortez and Pizarro, the Seven Cities became associated with New World legends. Coronado, hearing tales of the rich Aztec homeland of Azatlan somewhere to the north believed he was hunting for Quivira in what is today the American southwest. It was subsequently mapped and sought, though like most kingdoms of gold never found, for some 300 years before disappearing from maps in the early 19th century.
To the north Sanson maps is a barely recognizable Hudson Bay with several openings to the west. Beyond the waters of Hudson Bay and north of Insular California, Sanson leaves the largely unknown land blank, leaving open the hope of a Northwest Passage. Just to the south of the Hudson Bay we see a very early mapping of the Great Lakes. Ontario, Erie, and Huron are recognizable, but both Lake Michigan and Lake Superior open speculatively to the west, again suggesting the possibility of navigable water route to the Pacific.
On the Eastern coast of North America, Sanson recognizes French Claims to Canada, English claims to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Dutch claims in New Amsterdam (New York), and Swedish claims in New Jersey.
In Spanish Florida, which extends north to include most of the American Southeast, Lake Apalache or the Great Freshwater Lake of the American Southeast is noted. This lake, first mapped by De Bry and Le Moyne in the mid 16th century, is a mis-mapping of Floridas Lake George. While De Bry correctly mapped the lake as part of the River May or St. Johns River, cartographers in Europe erroneously associated it with the Savannah River, which instead of Flowing south from the Atlantic (Like the May), flowed almost directly from the Northwest. Lake Apalache was subsequently relocated somewhere in Carolina or Georgia, where Sanson maps it and where it would remain for several hundred years.
Southward is the well mapped Caribbean and once again the map is rife with cartographic speculation. While the South American coastlands are well mapped, the interior is largely unknown. Explorers throughout the late 16th and early 17th century, enthralled by Pizarros conquests in Peru and tales of other gold rich empires in the interior, were actively seeking El Dorado.
Most Europeans believe that the most likely site of the El Dorado legend was the mythical city of Manoa located by Sanson on the shores of the Lake Parima, near modern day Guyana, Venezuela, or northern Brazil. Manoa was first identified by Sr. Walter Raleigh in 1595. Raleigh did not visit the city of Manoa (which he also believes is El Dorado) himself due to the onset of the rainy season, however he describes the city, based on indigenous accounts, as resting on a salt lake over 200 leagues wide. This lake, though no longer mapped as such, does have some basis in fact. Parts of the Amazon were, at the time dominated by a large and powerful Indigenous trading nation known as the Manoa. The Manoa traded the length and breadth of the Amazon. The onset of the rainy season inundated the great savannahs of the Rupununi, Takutu, and Rio Branco or Parima rives. This inundation briefly connected the Amazon and Orinoco river systems, opening an annual and well used trade route for the Manoans. The Manoans who traded with the Incans in the western Amazon, had access to gold mines on the western slopes of the Andes, and so, when Raleigh saw gold rich Indian traders arriving in Guyana, he made the natural assumption for a gold hungry European in search of El Dorado. When he asked the Orinocans where the traders were from, they could only answer, Manoa. Thus did Lake Parime or Parima and the city of Manoa begin to appear on maps in the early 17th century. The would continue to be mapped in this area until about 1800.
Further south Sanson maps a large and prominent Laguna de Xarayes as the northern terminus of the Paraguay River. The Xarayes, a corruption of Xaraiés meaning Masters of the River, were an indigenous people occupying what are today parts of Brazils Matte Grosso and the Pantanal. When Spanish and Portuguese explorers first navigated up the Paraguay River, as always in search of El Dorado, they encountered the vast Pantanal flood plain at the height of its annual inundation. Understandably misinterpreting the flood plain as a gigantic inland sea, they named it after the local inhabitants, the Xaraies. The Laguna de los Xarayes almost immediately began to appear on early maps of the region and, at the same time, almost immediately took on a legendary aspect. The Lac or Laguna Xarayes was often considered to be a gateway to the Amazon and the Kingdom of El Dorado.
Across the the Atlantic is the well mapped coast of continental Africa, much is unknown of the interior and like South America much speculation and myth abounds. With the Nile, Sanson followed the Ptolemaic two lakes at the base of the Montes de Lune theory. Though Sanson does map both lakes, naming the western lake Zaire, he does not specifically name the Mountains of the Moon (though they are sketched in).
Just south of Sansons Lake Zaire, is the Kingdom of Monomatapa. This region of Africa held a particular fascination for Europeans since the Portuguese first encountered it in the 16th century. At the time, this area was a vast empire called Mutapa or Monomotapa that maintained an active trading network with faraway partners in India and Asia. As the Portuguese presence in the area increased in the 17th century, the Europeans began to note that Monomatapa was particularly rich in gold. They were also impressed with the numerous well crafted stone structures, including the mysterious nearby ruins of Great Zimbabwe. This combination led many Europeans to believe that King Solomons Mines, a sort of African El Dorado, must be hidden in this region. Monomotapa did in fact have rich gold mines in the 16th and 17th centuries, but most have these had been exhausted by the 1700s.
In Asia, Sanson offers us a fairly accurate mapping of Asia Minor, Persia and India. The Capsian Sea is corrected to a north-south axis though is a bit lumpy in form. He names numerous Silk Route cities through Central Asia including Samarkand, Tashkirgit, Bukhara, and Kashgar. Far to the north he associates Mongolia and Siberia with the Biblical lands of Gog and Magog.
Sanson maps, but does not name, the apocryphal Lake of Chiamay roughly in what is today Assam, India. Early cartographers thought that such a lake must exist as the source of four important Southeast Asian river systems including the Irrawaddy, the Dharla, the Chao Phraya, and the Brahmaputra. This lake began to appear in maps of this region as early as the 16th century and persisted well into the mid 18th century. Its origins are unknown but may originate in a lost 16th century geography prepared by the Portuguese scholar Jao de Barros. It was also heavily discussed in the journals of Sven Hedin, who believed it to be associated with Indian mythology that a sacred lake linked several holy subcontinent river systems. There are even records that the King of Siam led an invasionary force to take control of the lake in the 16th century. Nonetheless, the theory of Lake Chimmay was ultimately disproved and it disappeared from maps entirely by the 1760s.
Further east still the Korean peninsula unnaturally narrow. Just offshore the Japanese Islands emerge only to disappear and reappear on the opposite side of the map. The form of the islands approximates accuracy and Edo or Tokyo Bay is clearly recognizable. Several Japanese cities, including Yendo (Edo or Tokyo) are noted. Hokkaido is attached to the continent and the Japanese Kuril Islands extend eastward to meet up the aforementioned Gama Land or Terre de la Compagnie.
To the south Australia itself appears as New Holland. Much of the northern and western shores, including the Gulf of Carpentaria, have been mapped but the eastern shores remain unexplored and the interior entirely unknown. Tasmania, labeled Terre de Diemens appears according to its discovery and mapping by Able Tazman in 1642. A little further south and east is an extremely embryonic New Zealand. There is no trace of the a two island layout or, for that matter, a eastern shoreline. Also in evidence is the mysterious Terre de Quir a great landmass supposedly discovered by the 16th century Spanish navigator and religious zealot Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. Quiros set sail in search of the speculative southern continent and may in fact have discovered several important South Seas islands, however, he stopped just shy of glory and turned around shortly before sighting New Zealand. Even so, Quiros was a voracious self promoter and descriptions of his findings were circulated throughout Europe. Terre de Quir or Terre de Quiros appears on various maps of the region until put to rest by the 18th century explorations of Captain Cook.
Massing at the base of the map is the speculative southern continent or Terre Australe. Long before the discovery of Antarctica, the southern continent, supposedly capping the South Pole, was speculated upon by European geographers in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was thought that the globe was a place of balances and thus geographers presumed the bulk of Eurasia must be counterbalanced by a similar landmass in the Southern Hemisphere, just as, they argued, the Americas counterbalanced Africa and Europe. Many explorers in the 16th and 17th centuries sought the Great Southern continent, including Quiros, Drake, and Cook, but Antarctica itself was not truly discovered until Edward Bransfield and William Smith sighted the Antarctic Peninsula in 1820. All in all a magnificent and fascinating map of the world. (Ref: Shirley; Tooley; M&B)
1719 Alexis Jaillot Large Antique Map of North America, Final Scarce Edition
Antique Map
- Title : Amerique septentrionale divisee en ses principales parties, ou sont distingues les vns des autres les estats suivant qu'ils appartiennent presentemet aux Francois, Castillans, Anglois, Suedois, Danois, Hollandois, tiree des relations de toutes ces nations par le S. Sanson, Geographe Ordinaire du Roy...1719
- Date : 1719
- Size: 37 1/2in x 25in (950mm x 635mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 35647
Description:
Alexis Hubert Jaillot first published this map of North America in 1674 in the middle of a centuries old argument as to whether California was indeed an Island or Peninsula. The map was to publish again in 1685, 1690, 1692 & 1695, with very little change to the plate. But in 1719 the plate was re-engraved making significant changes to the eastern seaboard, The Great Lakes, Mississippi River and California. But unlike many publishers of the time, Jaillot did not depict California as a peninsula but straddled both arguments, showing California neither as an Island but also not joined to the mainland, separated quite clearly by the Mer Rouge.
The 1719 date of this map places its publication as first hand information is becoming increasingly undeniable that California is not an Island, but this was at odds with the established idea, that California is an Island. Hence the reason for the change but the obvious resistance to depict California truly as part of the American mainland.. (Ref: Shirley; Tooley; M&B)
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 37 1/2in x 25in (950mm x 635mm)
Plate size: - 34 3/4in x 23in (885mm x 541mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background: Although California was depicted as a Peninsula in the early maps of North America by Mercator in 1531, Ortelius in 1570 and Wytfliet in 1597, this in-fact changed after Father Antonio Ascension mistakenly reported the possiblity of a great opening in the west coast, found by Spanish explorers, that led to a vast inland sea north of Cape Medocin. Father Ascension drew a map depicting his idea of California as an Island in 1620, which he duly sent to the King of Spain. The ship carrying this map and his report was captured by the Dutch and taken to Amsterdam, one of the main centres of European cartography.
California as an Island was first published on a map in 1622 by Herrera but it was the English who first populised the idea with Henry Biggs in 1625 and John Speed in 1626-7. The Dutch followed with Hondius in 1631, De Laet 1633, Blaeu 1635, Visscher 1636 & Jansson in 1638. Such was Visschers and Janssons influence that it was sufficient to swing the whole of European Geography behind them, lasting until well into the 18th century.
One of the first to correct the misconception was Guillaume Delisle at the beginning of the 18th century. He was confident enough to leave blank his maps where real knowledge was deficient. Father Eusebio Kino was the first known European to cross the mainland to the peninsula of Califorina and in 1705 printed a map debunking the misconception. His view though was rejected by many of the time including Moll, Senex, Overton, De Fer Chatelain, Keulen, Homann & Seutter. The latter publishing his map of America with California as an Island up until 1750. Between 1715-30 Van Der Aa tried to have it both ways publishing separate maps with California as both an Island & Peninsula. Finally in 1747 King Ferdinand VII by a Royal Decree declared "California is not an Island" after a voyage along the west-coast by Father Consag in 1746.
1650 Jan Jansson & Nicolaas Blankaert 3 x Large Antique Maps Europe, Asia & Africa
- Title : Europa Antiqua cum finitimis; Asia antiqua cum finitimis; Africae Antiquae, et quarundam...
- Date : 1650
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 50489, 50490, 50492
- Size: 22 1/2in x 20in (565mm x 510mm) each
Description:
In 1650 Jan Jansson published three maps of the ancient world, Europe, Asia & Africa, after much considered and detailed work by the Leyden scholar of antiquities Nicolass Blanckaert 1624 - 1703, Latin Nicolaus Blancardus. These three highly detailed maps were only published in limited release and so are incredibly rare, especially as a set.
Nicolaas Blanckaert was a respected expert on the ancient world specialising on the Roman World and Alexander the Great. Three incredibly rare maps in exceptional condition.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 20in (565mm x 510mm) each
Plate size: - 20 1/2in x 15in (510mm x 380mm); 22in x 18 1/2in (560mm x 470mm); 21in x 15in (535mm x 380mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
Alexander III of Macedon 356 – 323 BC, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king (basileus) of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He was born in Pella in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of 20. He spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Asia and northeast Africa, and by the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of historys most successful military commanders.
During his youth, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until age 16. After Philips assassination in 336 BC, he succeeded his father to the throne and inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. Alexander was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his fathers pan-Hellenic project to lead the Greeks in the conquest of Persia. In 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Empire (Persian Empire) and began a series of campaigns that lasted 10 years. Following the conquest of Anatolia, Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently overthrew Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety. At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Beas River.
Alexander endeavoured to reach the ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea and invaded India in 326 BC, winning an important victory over the Pauravas at the Battle of the Hydaspes. He eventually turned back at the demand of his homesick troops, dying in Babylon in 323 BC, the city that he planned to establish as his capital, without executing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in the establishment of several states ruled by the Diadochi, Alexanders surviving generals and heirs.
Alexanders legacy includes the cultural diffusion and syncretism which his conquests engendered, such as Greco-Buddhism. He founded some twenty cities that bore his name, most notably Alexandria in Egypt. Alexanders settlement of Greek colonists and the resulting spread of Greek culture in the east resulted in a new Hellenistic civilization, aspects of which were still evident in the traditions of the Byzantine Empire in the mid-15th century AD and the presence of Greek speakers in central and far eastern Anatolia until the Greek genocide of the 1920s. Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mould of Achilles, and he features prominently in the history and mythic traditions of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. He was undefeated in battle and became the measure against which military leaders compared themselves. Military academies throughout the world still teach his tactics. He is often ranked among the most influential people in history.
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa and West Asia ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus to the military anarchy of the third century, it was a principate with Italy as metropole of the provinces and its city of Rome as sole capital (27 BC – 286 AD). Although fragmented briefly during the military crisis, the empire was forcibly reassembled, then ruled by multiple emperors who shared rule over the Western Roman Empire (based in Milan and later in Ravenna) and over the Eastern Roman Empire (based in Nicomedia and later in Constantinople). Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until 476 AD, when it sent the imperial insignia to Constantinople (Byzantium - Ancient Greek: Βυζάντιον, Byzántion) following the capture of Ravenna by the barbarians of Odoacer and the subsequent deposition of Romulus Augustus. The fall of the Western Roman Empire to Germanic kings, along with the hellenization of the Eastern Roman Empire into the Byzantine Empire, conventionally marks the end of Ancient Rome and the beginning of the Middle Ages.
The predecessor state of the Roman Empire, the Roman Republic (which had replaced Romes monarchy in the 6th century BC) became severely destabilized in a series of civil wars and political conflicts. In the mid-1st century BC Julius Caesar was appointed as perpetual dictator and then assassinated in 44 BC. Civil wars and proscriptions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. The following year Octavian conquered Ptolemaic Egypt, ending the Hellenistic period that had begun with the conquests of Alexander the Great of Macedon in the 4th century BC. Octavians power then became unassailable, and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power and the new title Augustus, effectively making him the first Roman emperor.
The first two centuries of the Empire saw a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana (Roman Peace). Rome reached its greatest territorial expanse during the reign of Trajan (98–117 AD). A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus (177-192). In the 3rd century the Empire underwent a crisis that threatened its existence, as the Gallic Empire and Palmyrene Empire broke away from the Roman state, and a series of short-lived emperors, often from the legions, led the empire. The empire was reunified under Aurelian (r. 270–275). In an effort to stabilize the Empire, Diocletian set up two different imperial courts in the Greek East and Latin West in 286. Christians rose to positions of power in the 4th century following the Edict of Milan of 313. Shortly after, the Migration Period, involving large invasions by Germanic peoples and by the Huns of Attila, led to the decline of the Western Roman Empire. With the fall of Ravenna to the Germanic Herulians and the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD by Odoacer, the Western Roman Empire finally collapsed – the (Eastern Roman) Emperor Zeno formally abolished it in 480 AD. Nonetheless, some states in the territories of the former Western Roman Empire would later claim to have inherited the supreme power of the emperors of Rome, most notably the Holy Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire, identified by modern historians under the name of the Byzantine Empire, survived for another millennium until the Empires last remains collapsed when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks of Sultan Mehmed II in 1453.
Due to the Roman Empires vast extent and long endurance, the institutions and culture of Rome had a profound and lasting influence on the development of language, religion, art, architecture, philosophy, law, and forms of government in the territory it governed, and far beyond. The Latin language of the Romans evolved into the Romance languages of the medieval and modern world, while Medieval Greek became the language of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Empires adoption of Christianity led to the formation of medieval Christendom. Greek and Roman art had a profound impact on the Italian Renaissance. Romes architectural tradition served as the basis for Romanesque, Renaissance and Neoclassical architecture, and also had a strong influence on Islamic architecture. The corpus of Roman law has its descendants in many legal systems of the world today, such as the Napoleonic Code, while Romes republican institutions have left an enduring legacy, influencing the Italian city-states republics of the Medieval period, as well as the early United States and other modern democratic republics.
1756 J B Nolin Large Rare Antique Map of North America, Great Lakes, French Indian War (1754-63)
- Title : Carte Du Canada et de La Louisiane Qui Forment La Nouvelle France et Des Colonies Anglois . . . 1756
- Date : 1756 (dated)
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
- Ref: 93505
- Size: 30in x 21 1/2in (760mm x 555mm)
Description:
This large, magnificent and very rare original copper plate engraved antique pre-revolutionary French Indian war map of North America was engraved by Jean Baptist Nolin in 1756, dated in cartouche.
This is an important and rare pre-revolutionary French Indian war map, which focuses on the territorial claims of France and Great Britain. Highly detailed showing many early towns and cities, some forts, Indian villages, and tribal territory. Includes the following French text describing the territories claimed by France, Great Britain & Spain in North America: Description du Canada below the cartouche,
This highly detailed map focuses on the territorial claims of France and Great Britain during the French Indian War (1754-63) highly detailed, with a heavy emphasis on the mapping of the Great Lakes. A must for any collector of maps of North America.
We have found records of only 7 sales of this map since 1983, and currently there is only one other to be found for sale.
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: - 30in x 21 1/2in (760mm x 555mm)
Plate size: - 28in x 20 1/2in (720mm x 520mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Small repair to left margin, not affecting the image
Plate area: - Old small repair to top centerfold
Verso: - Re-enforce along centerfold
Background:
The French and Indian War (1754–63) comprised the North American theatre of the worldwide Seven Years War of 1756–63. It pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France. Both sides were supported by military units from their parent countries, as well as by American Indian allies. At the start of the war, the French North American colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 settlers, compared with 2 million in the British North American colonies. The outnumbered French particularly depended on the Indians. The European nations declared war on one another in 1756 following months of localized conflict, escalating the war from a regional affair into an intercontinental conflict.
The name French and Indian War is used mainly in the United States. It refers to the two enemies of the British colonists, the royal French forces and their various American Indian allies. The British colonists were supported at various times by the Iroquois, Catawba, and Cherokee, and the French colonists were supported by Wabanaki Confederacy members Abenaki and Mikmaq, and Algonquin, Lenape, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Shawnee, and Wyandot.
British and other European historians use the term the Seven Years War, as do English-speaking Canadians. French Canadians call it La guerre de la Conquête (the War of the Conquest) or (rarely) the Fourth Intercolonial War.
Fighting took place primarily along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River called the Forks of the Ohio, and the site of the French Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, during which Virginia militiamen under the command of 22-year-old George Washington ambushed a French patrol.
In 1755, six colonial governors in North America met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, and planned a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, and the main effort by Braddock proved a disaster; he lost the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9, 1755 and died a few days later. British operations failed in the frontier areas of Pennsylvania and New York during 1755–57 due to a combination of poor management, internal divisions, effective Canadian scouts, French regular forces, and Indian warrior allies. In 1755, the British captured Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, and they ordered the expulsion of the Acadians (1755–64) soon afterwards. Orders for the deportation were given by William Shirley, Commander-in-Chief, North America, without direction from Great Britain. The Acadians were expelled, both those captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to His Britannic Majesty. Indians likewise were driven off the land to make way for settlers from New England.
The British colonial government fell in the region of modern Nova Scotia after several disastrous campaigns in 1757, including a failed expedition against Louisbourg and the Siege of Fort William Henry; this last was followed by Indians torturing and massacring their British victims. William Pitt came to power and significantly increased British military resources in the colonies at a time when France was unwilling to risk large convoys to aid the limited forces that they had in New France, preferring to concentrate their forces against Prussia and its allies in the European theater of the war. Between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture the Colony of Canada (part of New France). They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and ultimately the city of Quebec (1759). The British later lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec (1760), but the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris (1763).
The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo-French conflict. France ceded to Great Britain its territory east of the Mississippi. It ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River (including New Orleans) to its ally Spain in compensation for Spains loss to Britain of Florida. (Spain had ceded Florida to Britain in exchange for the return of Havana, Cuba.) Frances colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Great Britains position as the dominant colonial power in eastern North America.
1725 John Senex Large Twin Hemisphere World Antique Map Isaac Newton & Ed Halley
- Title : A Map of The World Corrected from the Observations communicated to the Royal Societys of London and Paris....Sold by Jogn Senex at the Globe....1725
- Ref #: 27015
- Size: 43 1/2in x 24 1/4in (1.105m x 615mm)
- Date : 1725
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
Description:
This very large original hand coloured, magnificent and extremely scarce copper-plate engraved antique Twin Hemisphere World Map drawn & engraved by John Senex in 1725 - dated below the title - was published for John Senexs Elephant Folio Atlas
This is the second edition of the large World Map. There were three states in 1711, 1725 and 1750.
Due to their size, these large scale maps are scarce. As they are hard to store and protect damage and loss over time was frequent. It is estimated that there are less than a 10% survival rate for these larger maps. To help improve its longevity, this map has been professionally mounted on archival board.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 43 1/2in x 24 1/4in (1.105m x 615mm)
Plate size: - 43in x 23 1/2in (1.090m x 595mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (10mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Bottom right & top left corner professionally restored. Cropped to plate mark
Plate area: - Light creasing, folds as issued
Verso: - Mounted to archival board
Background:
This map illustrates the change in the approach to cartography, aiming to highlight the importance of scientific endeavours and discoveries. In the case of this early map John Senex has included theories of tides, sea currents and winds by two of the foremost scientists of the day Sir Isaac Newton and Dr Edmund Halley. This text, surrounding the map is some of the earliest theories of the modern age, to explain the affect of tides, sea currents and winds on the oceans and the world in general.
It is noted by Whitfield... that this map represents the complete ascendancy of scientific taste in the eighteenth century twin hemisphere world map; the maps borders are filled with neither the classical motifs or the scientific motifs, but with scientific texts, long and detailed passages from two of the foremost scientists of the day (Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley) on the Theory of Tides from Newton and An Attempt to assign the Physical cause of the Trade Winds and Monsoons by Halley. This map epitomises the thirst for scientific curiosity that encompassed the world of the 18th century.
Senex has been geographically restrained with many unknowns, such as the debate on California as an Island - shown here as a peninsular. The search for a northern passage to Asia still abounds as does the lack of definitive knowledge of the Pacific NW. But he gives no guesses or half truths only sticking to what is known at the time. Senex remarks in text above California...These parts as yet being undiscovered, us not certain yet whether America joins to the North Eastern Part of Tartary, where hence it is most probable that it was peopled being supposed to be separated if at all but by narrow straits.
He also remarks in text north of Hudson's Bay keeping open the possibility of a NW passage...This way a northwest passage to China has several times been attempted without success.
In the Caribbean Senex notes..The Caribbean Isles in or near the month of August are dreadfully afflicted with furious storms called Hurricanes much as it were particular to them.
He has also been objective in his depiction of the known coastlines of Australia and New Zealand and has followed popular thinking on the connection of New Guinea to Australia. He engraves dire notes regarding New Holland..The soil of Hollandia Nova is barren and desert no fresh but some salt water rivers, no four footed beasts except an Amphibious one as big as a dog with Sea Cows and innumerable quantities of Rats as great as cats; also black swans and Parrots; the natives are black and go naked: the coast is low, foul and rocky, the inland parts high. Here abound oysters, lobsters and crabs and vast numbers of troublesome flies. (Mr. Witsen Phil Trans. No 245)
This is an incredibly important and rare map with many text passages. (Ref: Tooley; Whitfield; M&B)
Sir Isaac Newton PRS ( 1642 – 1727) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a natural philosopher) widely recognised as one of the greatest mathematicians and physicists of all time and among the most influential scientists. He was a key figure in the philosophical revolution known as the Enlightenment. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), first published in 1687, established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing infinitesimal calculus.
Dr. Edmund Halley FRS ( 1656 - 1742) was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720.
From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Halley catalogued the southern celestial hemisphere and recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun. He realised that a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the distances between Earth, Venus, and the Sun. Upon his return to England, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and with the help of King Charles II, was granted a masters degree from Oxford.
Halley encouraged and helped fund the publication of Isaac Newtons influential Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). From observations Halley made in September 1682, he used Newtons laws of motion to compute the periodicity of Halleys Comet in his 1705 Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets. It was named after him upon its predicted return in 1758, which he did not live to see.
Beginning in 1698, Halley made sailing expeditions and made observations on the conditions of terrestrial magnetism. In 1718, he discovered the proper motion of the fixed stars.
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
Tokugawa Period 徳川幕府 Very Large Antique Map of Shinano Province 信濃国 - Nagano 長野県
- Title : Shinano no Kuni Zenzu (Complete map of Shinano no Kuni - Shinano Province: Nagano Prefecture 信濃国
- Size: 78in x 38in (2.0m x 975mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Date : Tokugawa Period 徳川幕府
- Ref #: 91208
Description:
A very large, unique & original wood-block engraved antique map of the old Shinano Province (信濃国 Shinano no kuni) today the Nagano Prefecture (長野県 Nagano-ken) Japan.
This map is incredibly rare, within a limit of 100 printed, in the mid to late Tokugawa Period of Japan (1600 and 1868). Over 2m in length, folded, made up of joined sheets, each measuring approx 41cm x 31cm (16in x 12in) printed on traditional Japanese Washi paper. Hand coloured in outline.
Accompanying this map is earlier typed research on the map, noting the level of incredible and specific detail of the map. To quote
........Province Sagami- On this map, little has been skipped as to the locations of villages, places of historical interest, etc. so that travellers/toursits might find a suitable guide, to be slipped in thier pocket. Takashibe Mitsuo.....
......That Odawara is indicated with somewhat larger characters is interesting as to show its significanc held in those days....
.....Hakone One of the strongest military posts protecting Kamakura against kioto forces.....
......On the map stands the name of Yeddo, and not Tokyo, testifying perhaps to the date of the publication to be put in the latter years of the Tokugawa regime (1603-1867).....
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - White
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Red
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 78in x 38in (2.0m x 975mm)
Plate size: - 78in x 38in (2.0m x 975mm)
Margins: - Min 1/4in (5mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Folds as issued
Verso: - None
Background:
Shinano Province (信濃国 Shinano no kuni) or Shinshū (信州) is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture.
In 713, the road that traverses Mino and Shinano provinces was widened to accommodate increasing numbers of travelers through the Kiso District of modern Nagano Prefecture.
In the Sengoku period, Shinano Province was often split among fiefs and castle towns developed, including Komoro, Ina, and Ueda. Shinano was one of the major centers of Takeda Shingen\'s power during his wars with Uesugi Kenshin and others.
Suwa taisha was designated as the chief Shinto shrine (ichinomiya) for the province.
In 1871, during the Meiji period, with the abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures (Haihan Chiken) after the Meiji Restoration, Shinano Province was administratively separated in 1871 into Nagano and Chikuma prefectures. These two tentative governmental and territorial units were reconfigured together again in 1876. This became the modern prefecture of Nagano, which remains substantially unchanged from that time.
Nagano Prefecture (長野県 Nagano-ken) is a prefecture located in the Chūbu region of Japan. Nagano has impressive highland areas, including most of the Kita-Alps, Chūō-Alps, and Minami-Alps, which extend into the neighbouring prefectures. Due to the abundance of mountain ranges in this area, the land available for inhabitance is relatively limited. In addition to its natural scenic beauty and rich history.
The Tokugawa Shogunate, also known as the Tokugawa Bakufu (徳川幕府) and the Edo Bakufu (江戸幕府) was the last feudal Japanese military government, which existed between 1600 and 1868. The head of government was the shōgun and each was a member of the Tokugawa clan. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle and the years of the shogunate became known as the Edo period. This time is also called the Tokugawa period or pre-modern (Kinsei (近世)).
Following the Sengoku period (warring states period), the central government had been largely re-established by Oda Nobunaga during the Azuchi–Momoyama period. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Society in the Tokugawa period, unlike in previous shogunates, was supposedly based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The daimyō (lords) were at the top, followed by the warrior-caste of samurai, with the farmers, artisans, and traders ranking below. In some parts of the country, particularly smaller regions, daimyō and samurai were more or less identical, since daimyō might be trained as samurai, and samurai might act as local rulers. Otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts that did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to numerous confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants, ranging from simple local disturbances to much larger rebellions. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers.
Japanese Cartography
The earliest known term used for maps in Japan is believed to be kata (形, roughly form), which was probably in use until roughly the 8th century. During the Nara period, the term zu(図) came into use, but the term most widely used and associated with maps in pre-modern Japan is ezu (絵図, roughly “picture diagram”). As the term implies, ezu were not necessarily geographically accurate depictions of physical landscape, as is generally associated with maps in modern times, but pictorial images, often including spiritual landscape in addition to physical geography. Ezu often focused on the conveyance of relative information as opposed to adherence to visible contour. For example, an ezu of a temple may include surrounding scenery and clouds to give an impression of nature, human figures to give a sense of how the depicted space is used, and a scale in which more important buildings may appear bigger than less important ones, regardless of actual physical size.
In the late 18th century, translators in Nagasaki translated the Dutch word (land)kaart into Japanese as chizu (地図): today the generally accepted Japanese word for a map.
From 1800 (Kansei 12) through 1821 (Bunsei 4), Ino Tadataka led a government-sponsored topographic surveying and map-making project. This is considered the first modern geographer\\\'s survey of Japan;[1] and the map based on this survey became widely known as the Ino-zu. Later, the Meiji government officially began using the Japanese term chizu in the education system, solidifying the place of the term chizu for \\\"map\\\" in Japanese.
Generally speaking, traditional Japanese maps were quite diverse in style, depiction, and purpose, and were often oriented towards pragmatic use. It was less common for maps to serve literary or decorative purposes as they might in the West, instead being used for purposes such as the differentiation of rice fields on a feudal manor, or orientation within a temple complex. An example might be an Edo era pilgrimage map depicting the route and location of lodges on the road between Kyoto and Edo, including images of people on the road, with distances between stops differentiated not by relative distance, but by numerical markings, as scale as it is recognized in the West today was not generally used. This compression and expansion of space as necessary to emphasize certain qualities of the depicted area is an important characteristic of traditional Japanese maps, as is the regular inclusion of text, as text and image were not separated in Japan nearly to the same degree as in the West. Perspective on traditional Japanese maps can also be confusing to the modern Western viewer, as maps were often designed to be viewed from multiple points of view simultaneously, since maps were often viewed on the floor while the viewers sat around the map in a circle. Accordingly, many maps do not have a unified orientation scheme (such as North as up), with labels sometimes appearing skewed to each other.
Much of the fundamental concepts of space as depicted in Japanese maps can be traced to Chinese geomancy and Buddhist cosmologies, which came to Japan in the 7th and 8th centuries. Buddhist cosmologies depict the world as it was thought to exist within the appropriate religious framework, often including mythical sites such as the navel of the world[citation needed] and lands beyond the sea inhabited by monsters. In this sense, world maps based on Buddhist cosmology often bear little resemblance to the \\\"real world\\\", though many have at least approximately accurate depictions of Japan, Korea, China, and India. Chinese geomancy brought orientation and a regular grid system, as is evidenced in the street plan of Kyoto, which is based on the plan of the ancient Chinese capital of Chang\\\'an. North-South orientation, as in China, is thought to have been evident in the plan of the ancient capital (672–686 AD) of Naniwa (modern Osaka) as well. Hence, although many traditional Japanese maps are characterized by the malleability of space and lack of importance of accurate depiction of physical landscape, direction, distance, and relative orientation were quite important.
Many early Japanese maps were not accurate according to Western standards. Partly, this was the result of Japan being a closed society for many years. They had a long-lasting indifference to exploration as well. And in the feudal society, it was forbidden for ordinary Japanese citizens to travel. \\\"In fact, the Japanese government in Edo (Tokyo), had no interest in accurate map making because maps could be used by enemies to gain military advantage.\\\" Distorting and falsifying maps was known during World War II. Indeed, there was some discussion that captured Japanese maps had been deliberately falsified to confuse the Allied troops. The Army Map Service put out an announcement toward the end of the war that most of the Japanese maps, although sometimes outdated, were truthful and could be used. “In general, native maps of Japan are reliable. Prior to the outbreak of the war, it was alleged that the Japanese falsified certain sheets which they later allowed to fall into our hands. Spot checks against aerial photography have revealed no evidence to substantiate this claim. However, on some of these maps, pertinent military areas were left entirely blank. The US has a basic 1:50,000 coverage for practically all of Japan and 1:25,000 coverage for about a quarter of Japan. These maps, however, do not show the major transformation of man-made features which have taken place in Japan since 1941. Because of this, native Japanese maps are obsolete and their basic reliability is decreased. It is highly important, therefore, that a large-scale map material or trig lists captured from the Japanese be transmitted promptly to the Chief of Engineers in Washington, DC. This is essential also because we possess geographic coordinates for only about a 10th of the estimated 40,000 geodetic stations established in Japan
The oldest known map in Japan is a topographical drawing discovered on a stone wall inside a tomb in the city of Kurayoshi, in Tottori Prefecture, dated to the 6th century AD. Depicting a landscape of houses, bridges, and roads, it is thought to have been made not for practical navigational purposes, but rather as a kind of celestial cartography given to the dead to maintain a connection with the world of the living and allow them to orient themselves when moving on to the other world. Similar maps have been found in other kofun burial tombs as well. There is also evidence that at least rudimentary surveying tools were already in use in this era. One of the oldest written references to maps in a Japanese source is found in the Kojiki, the oldest (albeit largely mythological) history of Japan, in which land records are mentioned. The other major ancient history, the Nihon Shoki of 720 AD, describes a map of the ancient city of Naniwa (modern Osaka). The first map of provincial surveys is thought to be in 738, as described in the Shoku Nihongi. The earliest extant maps in Japan date to the 8th century, and depict the ownership of square rice field plots, oriented to the four cardinal directions. Shinto shrines held maps that they used for agrarian reform, differentiation of property, and land holdings. The system by which these maps were measured was called jōri, measured in units called tan and tsubo.
The Imperial Court of the Emperor Kōtoku (孝徳天皇, 597?–654) put the Handen sei (班田制, lit. ancient land system) into execution in 646 (Taika 2) and asked each province to submit maps of their land holdings, known as denzu (田図, roughly, \\\"picture map of rice fields\\\"). This was considered the first attempt in Japan to draw accurate (as opposed to representational) landscape in picture maps.
During the Shōmu reign (聖武天皇, 701-756), maps known as Gyōki-zu (行基図), named for the high priest Gyōki (高僧, 668–749), were developed. Gyōki himself served as a civil engineer, although there are no explicitly known direct connections between himself and maps per se. The connection between his name and the term Gyōki-zu is thought to be derived from his authority as a priest and perceived connections between maps and geomantic rites to drive away evil spirits. The term Gyōki-zu was widespread and used for maps which illustrated the routes from the Imperial capital to each province in Japan. These maps covered a broader area, and include a much larger portion of what is now known as Japan, giving an idea of the extent of known territory at the time. Maps from these early surveys (conducted in 646, 738, and 796), show the northeasternly extent of Japan to be near the island of Sado, the westerly extent as Kyūshū and the southerly extent as the tip of Shikoku, indicating a relative relationship of orientation, but lack of knowledge of the true cardinal directions, as Kyūshū stretches much further south than Shikoku, and Sado is closer to north than northeast. More important was relative position, especially in terms of the relationship between the capital in Yamashiro Province (modern Nara Prefecture), and as long as the maps accurately depicted this relationship, they were considered useful. The style and orientation of the Gyōki-zu is much in line with the general overview of Japanese maps as described above, and it was this style that formed the dominant framework in Japanese cartography until the late medieval and Edo periods.
\\\"The earliest Japanese maps, attributed to a Buddhist priest called Gyōki Bosatsu (668–749), shows a curious affinity with modern notice boards in public parks. A scheme of outline loops showing land ownership and boundaries, with south generally at the top, characterized this form of mapmaking, a response to the government\\\'s need for feudal information. Examples of such estate surveys surviving from the Nara period in the eighth century (named after the ancient Japanese capital city). They are legible and informative, but unrelated to other aspects of accuracy. Although none of Gogyi\\\'s own maps survive today, cadastral maps in his style still exist in the Shosoin, an imperial archive from that time, and are shown occasionally in the city of Nara. The Gyogi style represented loyalty to a valid tradition. These schematic loops of information, rather than realistic shapes, continued well into the nineteenth century, as did the complex Buddhist world maps, which were also unrelated to knowledge of the world\\\'s shapes of land and sea, but rather, maps of a spiritual landscape.\\\"
During the period of Handen sei, major Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and loyal families bought fields and expand their shōen (荘園, lit. manors). Following the manner of denzu, they draw maps of their shōen. The oldest known shōen map is called Sanukikoku yamadagun gufuku jiryo denzu (讃岐国山田郡弘福寺領田図). These denzu were often drawn on linen cloths. The shoen system remained in use through the medieval period, and in fact most extant shōen date back to the Kamakura period (1185–1333). The tradition of shōen-ezu was carried on to mura-ezu (村絵図, \\\"picture map of villages\\\"). Mura-ezu were planar picture maps of individual villages. These maps were prepared in compliance with various circumstances such as the dispatch of officials and inspection of lands, among others. Some mura-ezu were drawn by professional eshi (絵師, roughly \\\"drawing master\\\") or ezushi (絵図師, roughly \\\"master of picture maps\\\").
During the latter half of the 16th century and beyond, traditional Japanese mapmaking became influenced by Western techniques for the first time with the arrival of Dutch and Portuguese knowledge through the trade port of Nagasaki. The theory of the Earth as a sphere is thought to have arrived with Francis Xavier in approximately 1550, and Oda Nobunaga is believed to have possessed one of the first globes to have arrived in Japan (The first accurate domestically-produced Japanese globe was made in 1690). Japan thus saw full world maps for the first time, changing notions of a Buddhist cosmology matched with physical geography. The first known printed European-style map was made in Nagasaki in 1645, however, the name of the map\\\'s creator is unknown. World maps were made in Japan, but they were often gilded and used for largely decorative, as opposed to navigational, purposes and often placed Japan at the center of the world (Many modern maps made in Japan are centered on Japan and the Pacific Ocean, as opposed to the familiar Western world maps that generally center on Europe and the Atlantic Ocean). Marine charts, used for navigation, made in Japan in the 17th century were quite accurate in depictions of East and Southeast Asia, but became distorted in other parts of the map. Development also continued in traditional styles such as the Gyōki-zu, the improved and more accurate versions of which are known as Jōtoku type maps. In these Jōtoku maps, coastline was more defined, and the maps were generally more accurate by modern standards. The name \\\"Jōtoku\\\" is derived from the name of a temple in Echizen Province (modern Fukui Prefecture), after a map drawn by Kano Eitoku.
The first attempts to create a map encompassing all of Japan were undertaken by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1591, late in the Sengoku period. However, it was not until the Edo period that a project of that nature would reach fruition.
The Tokugawa government initiated a multi-year map-making project. Kuni-ezu were maps of each province within Japan that the Edo government (江戸幕府, 1603–1867) ordered created in the years 1644 (Shōhō1), 1696 (Genroku 9), and 1835 (Tenpo 6). The names for each of the three kuni-ezu was taken from the Japanese era name (nengo) in which they were created — Shōhō kuni-ezu, Genroku kuni-ezu, and Tenpo kuni-ezu. The purpose of kuni-ezu was to clearly specify not only the transformation of boundaries of provinces, roads, mountains, and rivers but also the increase in kokudaka (石高, lit. rice output) following the development of new field. Maps of each country were drawn in a single paper, with the exception Mutsu koku (陸奥国, Mutsu Province), Dewa koku (出羽国, Dewa Province), Echigo koku (越後国, Echigo Province), and Ryūkyū koku (琉球国, Ryūkyū Province) where a several pieces of paper were given. The Genroku kuni-ezu depicted the territorial extent of Japan as reaching from southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the north to the Ryūkyū and Yonaguni Islands in the south. A major flaw in these maps, however was the unreliability of surveying techniques, which often involved lengths of rope that easily became distorted, resulting in distortions in the map based on the survey as well. This was largely seen as an unavoidable flaw however. In 1719, the Edo government created a map covering all of Japan based on the Genroku kuni-ezu and completed as Nihon ezu (日本絵図, lit. Picture map of Japan). Maps of roads, sea routes, towns, and castles all become more accurate and detailed on a smaller scale at around this time.
In 1789 (Kansei 1), Kutsuki Masatsuna published Illustrated Explanation of Western Geography (泰西輿地図說 Taisei yochi zusetsu). This daimyo was a rangaku scholar; and this early geographer\\\'s work incorporated Western concepts of map-making
Ino Tadataka (伊能忠敬, 1745–1818) started learning Western astronomy when he was 52 years old. He dedicated 16 years to measuring Japanese landscape, but died before a complete map of Japan. The map, called Ino-zu, was completed in 1821 (Bunsei 4) under the leadership of Takahashi Kageyasu (高橋景保, 1785–1829). In 1863, the Hydrographic Department of British Royal Navy published the map of the Shelf Sea around the Japanese islands based on the Ino-zu and the accurate geographic location of Japan became widely known. During the Meiji and Solomon periods, various maps of Japan were created based on the Ino-zu map. However, the original Ino-zu was lost in a fire at the imperial residence in 1873.
During the Meiji Chiso kaisei (地租改正, lit. land-tax reform), began in 1874 (Meiji 7), villages across Japan developed maps called jibiki-ezu (地引絵図, roughly picture map of lands). Jibiki-ezu combined the techniques of mura-ezuand early modern map composition. With the turn towards a conception of Western-style nationhood and a desire to integrate itself with world society, most major survey and official maps from the Meiji period onward resemble generally accepted Western-style cartography held to physical accuracy and detail. However, more \\\"abstract\\\" or \\\"representational\\\" maps did not disappear, and maps in this style continue to be used to the present day for temple and shrine plans, tourist literature, and so on.
\\\"Between Meiji era and the end of World War II, map production in Japan was conducted by the Land Survey Department of the General Staff Headquarters, the former Japanese army. Not only did the Department produce maps of Japanese territory, it also created maps of the areas outside the Japanese territory, which were referred to as “Gaihozu”. Presently, “Gaihozu” include the maps of the former Japanese territories, and are predominantly in scales ranging from 1:25,000 to 1:500,000. Their geographical coverage stretches to Alaska northward, covering areas of U.S. mainland eastward, Australia southward, and westward to parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, including Madagascar. The methods of the map production varied from surveys by the Japanese survey squads, reproducing maps produced abroad and secret surveys by sealed order. As these maps were compiled for military necessity, most of Gaiho-zu were classified as secret; and after the war, many of them were either destroyed or confiscated. Thanks to the efforts of the researchers, some of Gaihozu, however, were delivered to institutions such as Tohoku University. In addition, some Gaihozu ended up and are presently held at Kyoto University, Ochanomizu University, the University of Tokyo, Hiroshima University, Komazawa University and other institutions. Despite the fact that these maps were prepared for military purpose, they have high value as they are the accurate records of earth scientific landscapes between the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century.Jap
1692 Vincenzo Coronelli Antique Globe Gore Rare Map of Australia, Indonesia
- Title : Nuova Guinea
- Size: 19 1/2in x 14in (495mm x 360mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Date : 1692
- Ref #: 30783
Description:
This finely engraved original antique map, a scarce Globe Gore map section - from Vincenzo Coronellis original 42in Globe of Australia, New Guinea and parts of the Islands of Indonesia - one of the earliest detailed maps of Australia - was published by Vincenzo Maria Coronelli in the 1696 Venice edition of Isolario dell Atlante Veneto.
To my mind Coronellis maps are some of the most beautifully engraved maps of the 17th century and the epitome of these are his Globe Gores.
In 1696 Coronelli published all his globe gores - from the 2in to the 42 in Globes - in an atlas, Libero dei Globi, part of the great series of atlases, Isolario dell Atlante Veneto that was published by Coronelli to ensure his work was available to a wider audience, as very few could afford travel to Venice, Rome or Paris to view his completed globes.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 19 1/2in x 14in (495mm x 360mm)
Plate size: - 11 1/2in x 9 1/2in (280mm x 235mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
The original globe gores for the 42in Terrestrial & Celestial Globe were printed on 12 full length sheets - with two polar calottes - in 1688.
To help fit into Coronellis future publications of Atlante Veneto, Libro dei Globi and Isolario dell Atlante Veneto the gore sheets were re-issued as the same size but cut into smaller sections. This effectively allowed the gores to be published in their original size but instead of one sheet per gore there were 2, 4 or 6 sheets making up the one gore.
The first edition of Coronellis 3 ½-foot celestial globe was engraved by Nolin in Paris after drawings provided by the Italian geographer and was printed in 1688. At the same time, its terrestrial counterpart was engraved and printed in Venice under Coronellis direction. These globes were produced in part as replicas of the gigantic and unique 15 foot-diameter pair of globes that Coronelli constructed and presented to Louis XIV, the King of France, in 1683, and which secured his fame as Europes premier globe maker. In 1693, soon after Coronelli engraved and printed the first Venetian edition of the 3 ½-foot celestial globe, Nolin engraved at Paris an entirely new edition on new plates. This globe was based on Coronellis work, but with the main legends in Latin, not Italian, as befitted a French market. The 3 ½ foot celestial globe was one of the crowning glories of Coronellis output and was also the grandest celestial globe of the 17th century.
(Ref: Shirley; Armao, Ermanno. Vincenzo Coronelli Cenni sulluomo e la sua Vita Catalogo... Bibliopolis, Florence pp.130-134)
1722 Guillaume Delisle Large Antique Map of America, True Rare 1st Edition
- Title : Carte D Amerique...1722
- Size: 26 1/2in x 20 1/2in (675mm x 520mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Date : 1722
- Ref #: 93338
Description:
This large original copper plate engraved hand coloured antique, true first edition, map of America was published by Guillaume Delisle in 1722.
Even though this map was published for the better part of the 18th century, the date 1722 in the cartouche, was not updated or removed in most instances. This makes identification of the true 1st editions complicated, but not impossible. The design of the cartouche itself is the defining evidence. I have included an image of the 4 different cartouche designs, from Tooleys The Mapping of America that define the different editions. This map is the first edition, state 2, illustrated in the image as No.2.
This 1st edition is a landmark map and one of the most important maps of America published in the early 18th century. So detailed was it, for its day, that it was copied many times over the next 100 years.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, Green, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 26 1/2in x 20 1/2in (675mm x 520mm)
Plate size: - 24 1/2in x 19 1/2in (620mm x 495mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - Light age toning
Verso: - Light age toning
Background:
Detailed map of America, showing a blank coastline above Cap Blanc and the mythical entry of D\'Aguilar. The map shows tremendous detail throughout. Nice detail in California and the Southwest. The course of the Mississippi si pushed considerably west of its true location, but the Missouri River is shown in a remarkably accurate fashion, with headwaters in the Northern Rocky Mountains. The map is rich with Indian and other early American details. Decorative cartouche, compass rose and extensive notes throughout the map. First edition, 2nd State of the map. A bit of minor soiling, some lifting at the centerfold near the bottom of the map and a bit of wear at the lower centerfold, but generally a fine dark impression of this important early map.
1646 Jan Jansson Antique Heptarchy Map of Great Britain & Ireland - Christianity in England
- Title : Britannia prout divisa suit temporibus Anglo-Saxonum præsertim durante illorum Heptarchia
- Ref #: 82076
- Size: 23 1/2in x 20in (595mm x 510mm)
- Date : 1646
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
Description:
This magnificent hand coloured original copper-plate engraved antique map of Britain during the reign of the Saxon Kings between 500 - 700AD - know as the Heptarchy Era - was published by Jan Jansson in his 1646 edition of Atlas Nouvs, blank verso.
Of the three iterations of this map by John Speed, Joan Blaeu and Jansson, this is considered by many to be the most accomplished. It is distinguishable from the others with the inclusion of compass roses & rhumb lines, sailing ships and the Irish escutcheon.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 23 1/2in x 20in (595mm x 510mm)
Plate size: - 20 1/2in x 16 3/4in (520mm x 425mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning in margins, old ink price top right
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
Splendid map of Anglo-Saxon Britain flanked by intricately rendered portraits of the kings through the 5th through 7th centuries. The monarchs to the left are those of the pre-Christian era, while those on the right are depicted receiving Christianity or being martyred for its sake.
This is often called the Heptarchy Map, as it presents England during the time following the Anglo Saxon conquest of southern England, approximately 500 to 850 A.D. known as the Heptarchy Era. (The word itself refers to the seven kingdoms that would eventually combine to form the Kingdom of England in the 10th century.)
To the left are the seven full length figures of the first aspiring Saxon Kings with their escutcheons, armies or townships;
1. Hengist - Kent 456AD
2. Ella - South Saxon 478AD
3. Cherdin - West Saxon 519AD
4. Erkenwin - East Saxon 527AD
5. Ida - Northumberland 582AD
6. Uffa - East Angle 546AD
7. Creda - Mercian 575AD
On the right there are scenes showing the conversion of Saxon sovereigns to Christianity:
1. Ethelbert - Kent 595AD receiving religious instruction from St Augustine
2. Sebert - East saxon604AD re-consecrating the temples of Diana and Apollo that later become St Pauls London and St Peters Westminster
3. Epenwald - East Angle 624AD embracing baptism by the armed exhortation of King Edwin of Northumberland
4. Edwin - Northumberland 627AD stirred by a vision to receive the faith
5. Kengils West Saxon 635AD converted by the preaching of St Berinus
6. Peada Mercia 650 receiving the Faith by the persuasion of King Osway of Northumberland but also being murdered by his own mothers, some say his wifes, procurement.
7. Ethenwolfe South Saxon 662AD being baptised at Oxford by St Berinus (Ref Shirley, Tooley, M&B)
1801 Kinbei Tadamasa Antique Map of Nagasaki & Port, Japan - Nagasaki Zu
- Title : (Nagasaki Zu)
- Date : 1801
- Size: 17 1/2in x 13 1/2in (445mm x 343mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 20406
Description:
Incredibly rare original hand coloured wood block engraved antique map of Nagasaki and Port (Nagasaki Zu) Japan by Kinbei Tadamasa was published in 1801.
Kinbei Tadamasa was a Japanese cartographer and publisher who lived in Nagasaki during the Edo period (1603-1868). He was known for his maps of Nagasaki and the surrounding areas, as well as his publications on astronomy and geography.
The Nagasaki Zu map depicts the city of Nagasaki as it appeared in the mid-18th century, including its streets, buildings, and landmarks. The map is oriented with north to the right, and is presented in a bird's-eye view format, which was common for maps of Japanese cities during this time. The map also includes a key to important locations in the city, such as temples, shrines, and government buildings.
Nagasaki Zu is considered an important historical document, as it provides a detailed view of Nagasaki during a time of significant cultural exchange between Japan and the West. Nagasaki was one of the few Japanese ports open to foreign trade during the Edo period, and as a result, it became an important center for the exchange of ideas and goods between Japan, China, and Europe. The map depicts the presence of Western-style buildings and fortifications in the city, reflecting the influence of European and Chinese traders on the local culture.
Today, Nagasaki Zu is held in the collections of several museums and libraries in Japan, including the Nagasaki City Museum and the National Diet Library. It is a valuable resource for scholars and historians studying the history and culture of Nagasaki and Japan during the Edo period.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Blue, yellow, green
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 17 1/2in x 13 1/2in (445mm x 343mm)
Plate size: - 17 1/2in x 13 1/2in (445mm x 343mm)
Margins: - Min 0in (0mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Japanese cartographers continued to produce maps of Nagasaki, reflecting the citys growth and changes over time.
One notable example of 18th century Japanese cartography of Nagasaki is the Nagasaki Zu or Map of Nagasaki, created by a Japanese cartographer named Kinbei Tadamasa in 1801. The map was produced using traditional Japanese cartographic techniques and features detailed illustrations of the citys streets, buildings, and landmarks. The map also includes annotations in Japanese, indicating the locations of various temples, shrines, and other landmarks.
Another important map of Nagasaki is the Nagasaki Ezu or Map of Nagasaki, created by a Japanese cartographer named Yamanouchi Tatsunosuke in 1853. The map was produced using a combination of traditional Japanese and Western cartographic techniques and features detailed illustrations of the citys streets, buildings, and waterways. The map also includes annotations in both Japanese and Dutch, indicating the locations of various landmarks and buildings.
In the late 19th century, the Japanese government began to adopt Western-style cartographic techniques, resulting in the production of maps such as the Nagasaki-shi Eiri Chizu or Map of Nagasaki City, created by the Geographical Survey Institute in 1893. The map was produced using a combination of Western and Japanese cartographic techniques and features a more modern, topographical view of the city.
These maps of Nagasaki provide valuable insight into the history and development of the city, as well as the evolution of Japanese cartographic techniques over time. They offer a unique perspective on the citys layout, architecture, and landmarks during the 18th and 19th centuries, reflecting the changes that occurred as Nagasaki became an important center of trade and commerce.
Tadamasa, Kinbei
Kinbei Tadamasa was a Japanese cartographer, astronomer, and publisher who lived in Nagasaki during the Edo period (1603-1868). He was born in 1729 in Nagasaki and worked as a surveyor and astronomer for the Nagasaki Domain. Tadamasa is known for his detailed maps of Nagasaki and its surrounding areas, as well as his publications on astronomy and geography.
In 1775, Tadamasa published his most famous work, "Nagasaki Zu," a detailed map of the city of Nagasaki. The map is oriented with north to the right and presented in a bird's-eye view format, which was common for maps of Japanese cities during this time. It is considered an important historical document as it provides a detailed view of Nagasaki during a time of significant cultural exchange between Japan and the West.
Tadamasa was also a prominent publisher and bookseller, and his shop, Bunkindo, became well known for its publications on astronomy, geography, and literature. Tadamasa's publications were known for their high quality and accuracy, and he was recognized as an important figure in the development of scientific knowledge and cartography in Japan during the Edo period.
Today, Tadamasa's maps and publications are held in the collections of several museums and libraries in Japan, including the Nagasaki City Museum and the National Diet Library. He is considered one of the most important cartographers and publishers of his time, and his work remains an important resource for scholars and historians studying the history and culture of Japan during the Edo period.
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
1687 Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi Large Antique Map of North America
- Title : L America Settentrionale....Guglielmo Sansone...Gio Giacomo De Rossi in Roma l Anno 1687
- Size: 23 1/2in x 18in (595mm x 455mm)
- Condition: (AVery Good Condition
- Date : 1687
- Ref #: 17061
Description:
This original hand coloured copper-plate engraved antique map of North America was engraved in 1687 by Giorgio Widman and was published by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi in the 1688 edition of Atlas Mercurio Geografico
Giorgio Widman (active 1672 to 1682) was a celebrated map and lettering engraver, who worked primiparity with the De Rossi publishing house. He is perhaps best known for having executed the lettering of Giovanni Battista Faldas superb 1675 map of Rome.
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: - 23 1/2in x 18in (595mm x 455mm)
Plate size: - 22in x 16in (560mm x 405mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Small nick to left bottom margin
Plate area: - Light creasing, top centerfold rejoined
Verso: - Light soiling
Background:
Attractive map of North America, with California depicted as an island. This is the Italian edition of the 1669 revised edition of Nicolas Sansons 1650 map. This is the third state of De Rossi s map, dated 1687 (after the first in 1677), with the addition of place names and other features, i.e. a coastline added from Agubela de Cato northward, Stretto d ANIAN named at 60 deg. N., MARE DI CALIFORNIA named to the west of California, and with many internal features added above 45 deg. N. Describing the first state, McLaughlin notes California with indented northern coast, with nothing to west and Agubela de Cato to north. Among the place names are C. de Mendocino, Pta. de los Reyes, Pta. de Monte Rey, Pta. de Francisco Draco (south of Pta de Monte Rey), Canal de S. Barbara, I. de S. Catalina, P. de S. Diego, etc. In the southwest, there is a large lake near Taosii, with R. de Norte flowing southwest from it to the Mar Rosso.
de Rossi, Giovanni Giacomo (1627 – 1691)
De Rossi was an Italian engraver and printer, active in Rome in the second half of the 17th century.
His father, Giuseppe de Rossi (1570-1639), was the founder of the most important and active printing press of the 17th century in Rome. The printing press begun in 1633, by Giuseppe de Rossi, and it passed firstly to Giovanni Giacomo and to his brother Giandomenico (1619-1653), and then later to Lorenzo Filippo (1682-?); in 1738 it became the Calcografia Camerale, from 1870 until 1945 the Regia Calcografica, and today it is known as the Calcografia Nazionale. Here are conserved, amongst many others, the plates of Giambattista Piranesi (1720-1778).
Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi was the most involved of all the various family members who ran the press, and he worked between 1638 and 1691, and was to take the company to the height of its success. The artists that he printed the etchings for included Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-1665), Pietro Testa (1612-1650) and Giovan Francesco Grimaldi (1606–1680).
1595 Gerard Mercator Original True Rare 1st Edition Antique Map of Africa
- Title : Africa Ex Magna orbis terra descriptione Gerardi Mercatoris desumpta. Studio & industria GM Iunioris
- Size: 21in x 16 1/4in (535mm x 415mm)
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
- Date : 1595
- Ref #: 27016
Description:
This beautifully hand coloured original, true rare 1st edition* antique map, of Africa by Gerard Mercator was published in the 1595 Latin edition of Mercators Atlas, Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes Illustrissimi Ducis.
* True 1st edition identified on the verso of the map, according to Koemans Atlantes Neerlandica, illustrating the letter "C" under the title "Africa".
As indicated in the title Cartouche, this map this is a reduction by Gerard Mercator Junior of Africa, compiled from Gerard Mercators world map of 1569. This rendition was drawn by Mercators grandson (also named Gerard) in 1595.
The map is typical of 16th century cartography of Africa containing some fantastical detail especially in regards to the interior. The depiction of the Nile is based on Ptolemys geography with some complex modifications from various sources, including Abyssinian monks. The source of the Nile is shown as a series of lakes located in the Lune Montes just north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Another branch of the Nile flows from the west, with this system rambling through what is the Sahara Desert. Mercator adds a lake named Sac. Haf lac, from the 1507 Waldseemuller world map. This lake feeds both the Zambere River and the Nile. In Abissini, the legendary Christian King Prester John sits on his throne. The boldly engraved oceans, beautiful calligraphy, and strapwork cartouche (surmounted by two satyrs) make this a decorative masterpiece.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 21in x 16 1/4in (535mm x 415mm)
Plate size: - 18 1/2in x 15in (470mm x 380mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Age toning, small rejoin in bottom right margin
Plate area: - None
Verso: - Age toning, left & top margin re-enforced
Background:
Being part of the Mediterranean world, the northern coasts of the African continent as far as the Straits of Gibraltar and even round to the area of the Fortunate Isles (the Canaries) were reasonably well known and quite accurately mapped from ancient times. In particular, Egypt and the Nile Valley were well defined and the Nile itself was, of course, one of the rivers separating the continents in medieval T-O maps. Through Arab traders the shape of the east coast, down the Red Sea as far as the equator, was also known but detail shown in the interior faded into deserts with occasional mountain ranges and mythical rivers. The southern part of the continent, in the Ptolemaic tradition, was assumed to curve to the east to form a land-locked Indian Ocean. The voyages of the Portuguese, organized by Henry the Navigator in the fifteenth century, completely changed the picture and by the end of the century Vasco da Gama had rounded the Cape enabling cartographers to draw a quite presentable coastal outline of the whole continent, even if the interior was to remain largely unknown for the next two or three centuries.
The first separately printed map of Africa (as with the other known continents) appeared in Munster\'s Geographia from 1540 onwards and the first atlas devoted to Africa only was published in 1588 in Venice by Livio Sanuto, but the finest individual map of the century was that engraved on 8 sheets by Gastaldi, published in Venice in 1564. Apart from maps in sixteenth-century atlases generally there were also magnificent marine maps of 1596 by Jan van Linschoten (engraved by van Langrens) of the southern half of the continent with highly imaginative and decorative detail in the interior. In the next century there were many attractive maps including those of Mercator/Hondius (1606), Speed (1627), Blaeu (1 630), Visscher (1636), de Wit (c. 1670), all embellished with vignettes of harbours and principal towns and bordered with elaborate and colourful figures of their inhabitants, but the interior remained uncharted with the exception of that part of the continent known as Ethiopia, the name which was applied to a wide area including present-day Abyssinia. Here the legends of Prester John lingered on and, as so often happened in other remote parts of the world, the only certain knowledge of the region was provided by Jesuit missionaries. Among these was Father Geronimo Lobo (1595-1678), whose work A Voyage to Abyssinia was used as the basis for a remarkably accurate map published by a German scholar, Hiob Ludolf in 1683. Despite the formidable problems which faced them, the French cartographers G. Delisle (c. 1700-22), J. B. B. d\'Anville (1727-49) and N. Bellin (1754) greatly improved the standards of mapping of the continent, improvements which were usually, although not always, maintained by Homann, Seutter, de Ia Rochette, Bowen, Faden and many others in the later years of the century.
1755 JB D Anville Large Original Antique Map of North America, Great Lakes, Indian Wars
- Title : Canada Louisiane et Terres Anglois Par Le Sr. D Anville...MDCCLV
- Ref #: 61140
- Size: 52in x 38in (1.32m x 960mm)
- Date : 1755
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
Description:
This magnificent, scarce, very large (52in x 38in) & highly detail map of North America was engraved in 1755 - dated in the title cartouche - by George De La Haye and was published by Jean Baptiste Bourguignon D Anville in his large elephant folio atlas Atlas Generale.
Geopolitically this map is extremely significant drawn as war between the Global Powers of the day, France, England & Spain, was breaking, known in Europe as the Seven Year War known in North America as the French & Indian war. (Please see below for more detail)
This map rivals John Mitchells "A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America published in 1755" - considered to be one of the most significant maps of North America published in the 18th & 19th centuries (a 1st edition of Mitchells map is currently for sale for $165,000).
I have included an image of the Mitchell map for comparison. The D Anville map is considered by many to be cartographically superior to the Mitchell map, at a fraction of the price.
General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - White
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 52in x 38in (1.32m x 960mm)
Plate size: - 45in x 35in (1.12m x 890mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Light ceasing along folds
Verso: - Very small worm holes
Background: This extraordinary map of the eastern half of North America extends from Newfoundland, Canada to St. Augustine, Florida, stretching westward beyond the Mississippi as far as modern day Texas. The map includes both the original colonial colonies along the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Georgia and the French claims in Louisiana (the Mississippi Valley) and modern day Canada. Florida is acknowledged as a Spanish enclave. Elevation is rendered in profile with fortifications, towns, and American Indian villages identified. A large inset map centres on the course of the St. Lawrence River from the Isle Aux Coudres to Lake Ontario.
The is a very significant map, drawn from a definitive French perspective, defining the territorial alignments and claims within North America shortly following the outbreak of the French and Indian War, considered to be a New World reflection of the European Seven Years War. It is however notable that it began before the larger hostilities in Europe and most of the major battles involved primarily parties only loosely aligned with the French or English - most specifically American Indians and lawless frontiersman, who had their own political agenda.
The war began with French incursions into western Pennsylvania and other territories claimed simultaneously by the French, English and American Indian forces. Just prior to the war, the French, in the interest of broadening their hold on the lucrative fur trade, established a series of forts, all of which are here noted, along the length of the Mississippi and further east, including Fort Duquesne (here Fort de Quene, Pittsburgh), Fort de la Presquisle, and for Le Beouf (here, Fort de la Riv Jaus Beufs).
The map also recognizes British claims, only inland as far as the Appalachian Mountains, beyond which place names take on a noticeably French character. These last three forts occupied particularly contested territory under the control of the powerful British allied Iroquois League. The most contested of these was Fort Duquesne (modern day Pittsburgh) in direct opposition to another fort then being constructed by the Ohio Company, a trading and land speculation firm established by prominent Virginia colonials, including George Washington. The Virginian colonial governor responded to Duquesne by sending then Lieutenant George Washington and a band of Virginia militiamen to harass the French. The resulting Jumonville Affair, in which Washington oversaw an attack on a French Canadian diplomatic forces led by Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, to warn the Ohio Company fort builders away from French claimed territory. The slaying of Jumonville and several other French diplomats prompted a response from French forces at Fort Duquesne, leading to Washingtons retreat and construction of Fort Necessity, really little more than a palisaded shack, marked here just south of Fort Duquesne. These events, all of which occurred in May of 1754, were said to have increased hostilities in Europe and led to the start of the Seven Year War in 1755.
Beyond the political agenda of this map, is the map itself, being one of the finest and most heavily detailed maps of North America published in the mid 18th century. Ranking alongside the large 1755 Mitchell map in detail but judged by many as cartographically superior. Drawing on both French and British cartographical detail, D Anville identifies countless American Indian tribes, many of which, like the Sioux and Missouri, the British had only vague knowledge. Moreover, he also includes detail such as swamps, rapids, fords, abandoned villages, and even the ancient remnants of mound builder culture in the Ohio Valley. D Anville notably does not include Mitchells fictional Lake Superior islands.
This map was originally published to accompany the pamphlet entitledMemoire sur la carte intitulee: Canada, Louisiane, & Terres angloises and was also published in four parts for D Anvilles Atlas General.
These large maps are hard to find in such good condition and make fantastic historical reference tools due to the size and high level of detail as with all D Anvilles work. (Ref: Tooley, M&B)
1710 G & L Valck Large Old, Antique Map of America - California as an Island
- Title : America Aurea Pars Altera Mundi Auctoribus Gerardo et Leonardo Valk....
- Ref #: 16379
- Size: 24 1/2in x 20 1/2in (625mm x 520mm)
- Date : 1710
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
Description:
This large rare beautifully hand coloured original antique map of America by Gerald & Leonard Valk was published in 1710.
Gorgeous old color example of this striking map of America, A strong dark impression of this scarce map.
Background: Valck's map of America illustrates many of the myths of cartographic America in the 17th Century. California is shown as an island based on the second Sanson Model. A massive land bridge extends from just west of Capo Blanco on the northern California coastline to Niphon, a curious adaptation of the legend of Compagnie Land (shown here as a place name -- Terre de la Compagne) and the continuous land bridge from America to Asia, although adding the Detroit de Tzungaar (Strait of Tzungaar), a very rarely mentioned mythical Strait between two islands of Japan.
The Great Lakes are oddly configured, with Lake Superior and Lake Michigan open ended to the West. The Mississippi River is very ill conceived, pre-dating the radical improvements which would come with Guilluame De L'Isle's map of North America of 1700 and Carte du Mexique of 1703.
Many of the facts of America depicted in this map Valk derives directly from Alexis-Hubert Jaillot in the late 17th century. Interestingly in transferringFLORIDE FRANÇOISE from Jaillot the engraver managed to come up withFloroi de Fran. It appears the remainder of Françoise was erased whilst arranging the border. No attempt is made to update the cartography, none of the more recent English colonies is present, not even Pennsylvania, arguably the one with the most exposure throughout the continent of Europe. A second title is engraved across the top of the map detailing further the various territories. The imprint and a total of eight different scales are decorated by a trading scene with natives who appear more Asian than American Indian. It is more accurately rendered in the similar scene lower right. (Ref: Burden; Tooley; M&B)
General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, pink, blue.
General color appearance: - Authentic
Papaer size: - 24 1/2in x 20 1/2in (625mm x 520mm)
Plate size: - 23 1/2in x 19 1/2in (595mm x 495mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (10mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Small repair to left margin 2in into image, no loss.
Plate area: - Light soiling
Verso: - Light soiling
1778 Matthaus Lotter Large Oval World Map showing Capt Cooks 1st Voyage - Rare 1st edition
- Title : Mappe Monde ou carte generale de l`Univers sur une projection nouvelle d`une sphere ovale pour mieux entendre les distances entre l`Europe et Amerique avec le tour du monde du Lieut Cook et Tous Les Decouvertes Nouvelles...MDCCLXXVIII
- Date : 1778 (1st edition)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 35629
- Size: 39in x 21in (990mm x 535mm)
Description:
This very large, impressive original copper-plate engraved antique World Map, on an Ortelius Oval Projection, showing the tracks of Captain Cooks 1st Voyage to the South Seas, was engraved and published by Matthäus Albrecht Lotter in 1778, dated in title. The map was re-issued in 1782 & 1787 to include the tracks of Cooks 2nd & 3rd voyages of discovery.
This 1st edition Lotter Oval map is scarce with only a small few available on the open market.
This map was one of the first world maps published to cash in on the publicity over Captain James Cooks Circumnavigation of the world and the first European survey of New Zealand and the East Coast of Australia. Beautifully executed and dominated by New Holland, Australia, for the first time almost complete on a world map.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 39in x 21in (990mm x 535mm)
Plate size: - 37 1/2in x 19 1/4in (955mm x 495mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Folds as issued
Verso: - None
Background:
This large world map was one of the first to show the discoveries of the east coast of Australia and New Zealand by James Cook on his first voyage of Discovery. The shadow line from Tasmania west to Western Australia was not filled in until the later discoveries of Bass Strait by Bass and Matthew Flinders in 1797 and the southern coast by Baudin and Flinders in 1803. Also included along the New Holland coastline is the earlier Dutch discoveries of Hartog 1616, the van Leeuwin 1619, Nuyts 1627, de Wit 1628 and Tasman 1642-44. The Trial Islands near present-day Dampier, named after the English ship the Trial, which were incorrectly charted by Gerritsz after the false reports provided by Captain Brookes, are also noted.
Cooks First Voyage (1768-1771)
The first voyage under Captain James Cooks command was primarily of a scientific nature. The expedition on HMS Endeavour initially sailed to Tahiti to observe the transit of the planet Venus in order to calculate the earths distance from the sun. Cook landed on the South Pacific island in April of 1769 and in June of that year the astronomical observations were successfully completed. In addition to these labors, very good relations with the Tahitians were maintained and the naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel C. Solander conducted extensive ethnological and botanical research.
Another purpose of the voyage was to explore the South Seas to determine if an inhabitable continent existed in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Upon leaving Tahiti, Cook named and charted the Society Islands and then continued southwest to New Zealand. His circumnavigation and exploration of that country also resulted in a detailed survey. Cook proceeded to Australia, where he charted the eastern coast for 2,000 miles, naming the area New South Wales. As a result of these surveys, both Australia and New Zealand were annexed by Great Britain. In addition to these explorations, the HMS Endeavour returned to England without a single death from scurvy among its men, an historic feat at the time. The combination of these accomplishments brought Cook prominence, promotion, and the opportunity to lead further expeditions.
The Ortelius Oval Projection is a map projection used for world maps largely in the late 16th and early 17th century. It is neither conformal nor equal-area but instead offers a compromise presentation. It is similar in structure to a pseudocylindrical projection but does not qualify as one because the meridians are not equally spaced along the parallels. The projection\'s first known use was by Battista Agnese (flourished 1535–1564) around 1540, although whether the construction method was truly identical to Ortelius\'s or not is unclear because of crude drafting and printing. The front hemisphere is identical to Petrus Apianus\'s 1524 globular projection.
The projection reached a wide audience via the popular map Typus Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius beginning in 1570. The projection (and indeed Ortelius maps) were widely copied by other mapmakers such as Giovanni Pietro Maffei, Fernando de Solis, and Matteo Ricci.
1778 Antonio Zatta Antique Map of New Zealand af. Captain James Cook - Magnificent
Antique Map
- Title : La Nuova Zelanda trascorsa nel 1769 e 1770 d'al Cook Comandante dell' Endeavour Vascello di S. M. Britannica . . . 1778
- Ref #: 17023
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Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Size: 21 1/4in x 15 1/2in (540mm x 400mm)
- Date : 1778
Description:
This impressive original hand coloured copper-plate engraved very early antique map of New Zealand, after Captain James Cook, was engraved in 1778 (the first edition with a second dated 1791) was published by Antonio Zatta in his 1779 edition of Atlante Novissimo. (This is one of the best examples of this early New Zealand map I have see to date)
This is a beautifully engraved map after Captain James Cooks surveys of 1769. Cook published the first compete map of NZ in 1774, with this more decorative map being published by Zatta some 4 years later. The map contains all of Cooks coastal survey detail with some details of the interior of the islands. Also included are the tracks of Cooks ship HMS Endeavour as he surveyed the coast as well as his approach and exit from New Zealand. Beautiful original hand colour, with a heavy impression denoting an early pressing.
The maps of Venetian publisher Antonio Zatta are noteworthy for their fine craftsmanship and high aesthetics. He was probably the most important Italian map publisher of the late eighteenth century and is responsible for a large number of atlases and single maps of considerable aesthetic and scientific merit.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 21 1/4in x 15 1/2in (540mm x 400mm)
Plate size: - 18in x 14in (455mm x 355mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
New Zealand (or Aotearoa, as the Maori call it) had been first encountered by Europeans in the early 1640s, when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman named the land "Nieuw Zeeland" after the Dutch province. Importantly, Tasman only sailed up the west coast of the North Island and had little notion as to the nature of the islands or their broader geographical context. A small number of Tasman's place names were preserved by Cook (and remain in place to this day), including 'Cape Maria van Diemen' (the northernmost point of the North Island) and the 'Three Kings' islets, where Cook and his men celebrated the Christmas of 1769-the first Europeans to visit the islands for nearly 130 years.
Captain James Cook (1728-1779) is considered to be the greatest explorer of the eighteenth century and was the finest maritime cartographer of the Age of Enlightenment. Having first worked on coal colliers and then distinguished himself as a surveyor in Eastern Canada, in 1768 he became the British Admiralty's choice to lead an unprecedented voyage of discovery. The central impetus for the expedition was to observe the Transit of Venus from Tahiti and then to proceed to explore Terra Australis Incognita, the supposedly rich southern continent. Whereas the first part of the voyage was to be conducted under the auspices of international scientific cooperation, the second part was entirely clandestine and was only communicated to Cook via "Secret Instructions" to be opened once at sea.
Cook's party left Plymouth in August 1768 aboard the converted coal collier HMS Endeavor and proceeded to Tahiti by way of Cape Horn. They arrived in time to observe the Transit of Venus, which occurred June 3, 1769. Cook then proceeded towards New Zealand, to the coordinates recorded by Tasman. As New Zealand was quite conceivably part of Terra Australis, it was Cook's intention to carefully explore and map the region.
On October 6, 1769, the Endeavor sighted the North Island (Te Ika a Maui) at Turanga Nui, which Cook renamed Poverty Bay. He and his crew had arrived on the opposite shore to where Tasman had met the island. Cook proceeded to the South Island (Te Wai Pounamu), carefully mapping both landmasses with a running survey. He used soundings, visual observations, and triangulation regulated by astronomical observations to create his manuscript charts.
Despite being constantly buffeted by wind and rain, and after having some hostile relations with the Maori that resulted in Maori deaths, Cook and his crew managed to circumnavigate both the North and South Islands, proving that they were separate islands divided by the Cook Strait. They also proved the islands were not connected to any southern continent. On March 31, 1770, Cook wrote in his journal that the Endeavour's voyage:
…must be allowed to have set a side the most, if not all, the arguments and proofs that have been advanced by different Authors to prove that there must be a Southern Continent; I mean to the northward of 40 degrees South, for what may lay to the Southward of that Latitude I know not (Cook, Journals I, 290).
The Endeavor left New Zealand at Cape Farewell, sailing west towards Australia, where Cook's crew would become the first Europeans to explore that region. In total, they had surveyed over 2,400 miles of New Zealand coastline in six months.
Upon the Endeavour's return to England in July 1771, Cook became a national hero. He would go on to lead two further voyages that would succeed in illuminating most of the Pacific Ocean to European eyes. On the second expedition, Cook would put to rest the myth of a southern continent. On the third, he kick started the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest of North America while searching for the Northwest Passage. He was killed by Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay in 1779.
Cook returned to England with over 300 manuscript charts and coastal views. The original manuscript chart of New Zealand is now held by the British Library (Add MS 7085, f. 16-7). The chart was drawn, at least in part, by Isaac Smith (1752-1831), a draftsman of considerable skill who worked with Cook in Newfoundland, sailed on the Endeavour and Cook's second voyage, and was related to Cook's wife. Of the New Zealand chart, Cook wrote:
The Chart which I have drawn will best point out the figure and extent of these Islands…beginning at Cape Palliser and proceed round Aehei no mouwe (North Island) by the East Cape &ca. The Coast between these two Capes I believe to be laid down pretty accurate both in its figure and the Course and distance from point to point. The oppertunities I had and the methods I made use on to obtain these requesites were such as could hardly admit of an error… some few places however must be excepted and these are very doubtfull …(Cook, Journals I, 275-6)
The overall delineation is impressively accurate, correctly capturing many of the bays and promontories, and making insightful observations of the interior. Many of the names given by Cook survive to this day, including the Alps, (the great mountain chain of the South Island), Mount Egmont (the volcano on the North Island, also known as Mount Taranaki), the Bay of Islands, the Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, and most intriguingly, Cape Kidnappers (a point on the North Island where Maori warriors attempted to abduct a member of the Endeavor's crew).
There are a few errors, conspicuous only because of the otherwise superb accuracy of the chart. Notably, Cook's "Banke's Island" is in fact a peninsula, part of the South Island. Further south, what looks like a possible peninsula is actually Stewart Island, with the "Isle Solander" to the west. Also, some portions of coast line remain un-surveyed due to adverse conditions or distraction. For example, the portion of coastline near Bankes Island is but a dotted line because Lieutenant Gore had thought he sighted land to the southeast. Upon sailing toward it, the promontory proved to be clouds. Despite such mistakes, the chart is remarkably thorough.
The present chart was printed as part of the official account of Cook's first voyage, which was edited by the literary critic John Hawkesworth and underwritten by the British Admiralty. An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the order of His Present Majesty for making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere… (London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1773) recounted the voyages not only of Cook, but of Byron, Wallis, and Carteret who had also ventured to the Pacific for the Royal Navy earlier in the 1760s. It was engraved by John Abraham Bayly (fl. 1755-1794), a London-based engraver who specialized in cartographic work.
In 1816, the British Hydrographic Office began to reprint the map for its vessels. The chart was continuously consulted into the twentieth century. Due to this longevity, its extraordinary origins, and its important place in the founding of New Zealand as a British colony, Cook's chart is considered to be the most important single map in the history of New Zealand. Due to the complexity of the assignment and the great accuracy of the survey, it is also considered to be one of Cook's very finest maps, and one of the truly great achievements of Enlightenment cartography.
Zatta, Antonio fl. 1757 - 1797
Antonio Zatta was a prominent Italian editor, cartographer, and publisher. Little is known about his life beyond his many surviving published works. It is possible that he was born as early as 1722 and lived as late as 1804. He lived in Venice and his work flourished between 1757 and 1797. He is best known for his atlas, Atlante Novissimo (1779-1785), and for his prolific output of prints and books that were both precisely made and aesthetically pleasing. Zatta clearly had a large network from which to draw information; this is how he was able to publish the first glimpse of the islands visited by Captain Cook in the Atlante Novissimo.
Zattas maps are noteworthy for their fine craftsmanship and high aesthetics. His re-engraving and publication of John Mitchells famous map of North America A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America in 1778, is considered one of the best re-issues of this seminal, landmark map .
......He was probably the most important Italian map publisher of the late eighteenth century and is responsible for a large number of atlases and single maps of considerable aesthetic and scientific merit.... (Portinaro & Knirsch, The Cartography of North America, 1500-1800, p. 319).
Zatta was among the leaders in the eighteenth-century revival of fine printing in Italy and his choice of the text of Raynal to support his re-issue of Mitchells Map, is not surprising. Anne Palms Chalmers describes Zatta as a sardonic writer with the focus of a certain amount of political controversy (Venetian Book Design in the Eighteenth Century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 29, No. 5, January 1971, pp. 226-235). Chalmers describes Zattas printing and design as harmonious in composition with ornament unified by style, quality of line, and tone of printing.
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
1746 J B D Anville Large Rare Antique Map of North America Pre French Indian War
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Title : Amerique Septentrionale Publiee sous les Auspices de Monseigneur le Duc d Orleans.. Par Le Snr. D Anville MDCCXLVI
- Ref #: 17010
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Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Size: 42 1/2in x 37in (1.08m x 940mm)
- Date : 1746
Description:
This large important original copper plate engraved antique map of North America, in 12 sheets joined, was engraved in 1746 - dated in the cartouche - and was published by Jean-Baptiste Bourguinon D Anville in his Elephant Folio Atlas Generale.
This map was instrumental in instructing the European Colonial powers of the time, England France & Spain the importance of dominating the New World, that ultimately led to the French and Indian War of 1754–63. This conflict determined the political direction of North America leading to the American War of Independence in 1775 and ultimately the formation of The United States of America.
To illustrate the importance of cartography in the mid eighteenth century, especially that of North America, a J B D Anville map is essential. D Anville dominated 18th century European cartography with many of his cartographical achievements, especially in North America, copied by many of his contemporaries such as Kitchen, Sayer, Homann, Seutter, Mitchell and others .
He was one of the first to leave blank spaces in his maps, where knowledge was scant or insufficient. His representation of the great lakes is superior to that of his contemporary John Mitchell, responsible for publishing one of the most famous mid 18th century maps of North America, A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America on 8 sheets in 1755 and remained the standard map of North America up until the end of the 18th century. (Ref: Tooley, Printed maps of America, 104; The Mapping of America 316)
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Red, yellow, green, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 42 1/2in x 37in (1.08m x 940mm)
Plate size: - 34 1/2in x 33 1/2in (875m x 850mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Small wormholes in left margin repaired, not affecting the image
Plate area: - Light age toning
Verso: - Age toning
Background:
The French and Indian War (1754–63) comprised the North American theatre of the worldwide Seven Years War of 1756–63. It pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France. Both sides were supported by military units from their parent countries, as well as by American Indian allies. At the start of the war, the French North American colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 settlers, compared with 2 million in the British North American colonies. The outnumbered French particularly depended on the Indians. The European nations declared war on one another in 1756 following months of localized conflict, escalating the war from a regional affair into an intercontinental conflict.
The name French and Indian War is used mainly in the United States. It refers to the two enemies of the British colonists, the royal French forces and their various American Indian allies. The British colonists were supported at various times by the Iroquois, Catawba, and Cherokee, and the French colonists were supported by Wabanaki Confederacy members Abenaki and Mikmaq, and Algonquin, Lenape, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Shawnee, and Wyandot.
British and other European historians use the term the Seven Years War, as do English-speaking Canadians. French Canadians call it La guerre de la Conquête (the War of the Conquest) or (rarely) the Fourth Intercolonial War.
Fighting took place primarily along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River called the Forks of the Ohio, and the site of the French Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, during which Virginia militiamen under the command of 22-year-old George Washington ambushed a French patrol.
In 1755, six colonial governors in North America met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, and planned a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, and the main effort by Braddock proved a disaster; he lost the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9, 1755 and died a few days later. British operations failed in the frontier areas of Pennsylvania and New York during 1755–57 due to a combination of poor management, internal divisions, effective Canadian scouts, French regular forces, and Indian warrior allies. In 1755, the British captured Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, and they ordered the expulsion of the Acadians (1755–64) soon afterwards. Orders for the deportation were given by William Shirley, Commander-in-Chief, North America, without direction from Great Britain. The Acadians were expelled, both those captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to His Britannic Majesty. Indians likewise were driven off the land to make way for settlers from New England.
The British colonial government fell in the region of modern Nova Scotia after several disastrous campaigns in 1757, including a failed expedition against Louisbourg and the Siege of Fort William Henry; this last was followed by Indians torturing and massacring their British victims. William Pitt came to power and significantly increased British military resources in the colonies at a time when France was unwilling to risk large convoys to aid the limited forces that they had in New France, preferring to concentrate their forces against Prussia and its allies in the European theater of the war. Between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture the Colony of Canada (part of New France). They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and ultimately the city of Quebec (1759). The British later lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec (1760), but the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris (1763).
The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo-French conflict. France ceded to Great Britain its territory east of the Mississippi. It ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River (including New Orleans) to its ally Spain in compensation for Spains loss to Britain of Florida. (Spain had ceded Florida to Britain in exchange for the return of Havana, Cuba.) Frances colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Great Britains position as the dominant colonial power in eastern North America.
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
1639 Jan Jansson Antique Map of North America Virginia to New York to New England
- Title : Nova Anglia Novvm Belgium et Virginia
- Date : 1639
- Condition: (A+) Fine Good Condition
- Ref: 43134
- Size: 22 1/2in x 19 1/2in (570mm x 495mm)
Description:
This beautifully hand coloured, important original antique map of the north east regions of the United States from Virginia, Chesapeake Bay, to New York & New England by Jan Jansson was published in the 1639 French edition of the Jansson, Hondius Atlas.
A beautiful map with sturdy, clean paper original wide margins and beautiful original hand colouring.
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: - 22 1/2in x 19 1/2in (570mm x 495mm)
Plate size: - 20in x 15 1/2in (535mm x 395mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light toning on margin edges
Plate area: - Very light offsetting
Verso: - None
Background:
A beautiful original 17th map of Virginia, New York and New England which was derived from the less well circulated Johannes de Laet map of 1630. This version is enlarged and expanded to the north and slightly east, with de Laets narrative on the verso (De Laets map is one of extreme importance, being the first printed to use the namesManbattes (Manhattan) and N. Amsterdam)
The nomenclature on this map is virtually identical to the De Laet map, with the few minor differences most likely owing to the engravers error. C of Feare is still depicted over 2° too far south. This is not Cape Fear we know of today but actually Cape lookout.
During the fiercely competitive decade of the 1630's the families of Blaeu and Jansson produced maps drawn directly from one another. Here, however, Jansson produces one that was not followed by Blaeu, relying upon the more restricted map of Nova Belgica to represent the land north of Chesapeake Bay. A sign of the Dutch influence here is that both atlas producers largely declined to include the advanced cartography of Champlain, thereby relegating it altogether.
There are three know states of this map, the first one published in 1636 - entitled Nova Anglia Novvm Belgium et Virginia.
The second edition in which the title of the map was changed to Nova Belgium et Anglia Nova (to give more weight to Dutch claims in North America) within a new square cartouche was first published in 1647.
State 3 was published in 1694 by Schenk & Valk which included new regional demarcation and a latitude and longitude grid. (Ref: Koeman; M&B; Tooley; Burden; AMPR)
1778 Antonio Zatta Antique Map of New Zealand af. Captain James Cook - Beautiful
- Title : La Nuova Zelanda trascorsa nel 1769 e 1770 d'al Cook Comandante dell' Endeavour Vascello di S. M. Britannica . . . 1778
- Ref #: 93527
-
Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Size: 19 1/2in x 15 1/2in (495mm x 395mm)
- Date : 1778
Description:
This impressive original hand coloured copper-plate engraved very early antique map of New Zealand, after Captain James Cook, was engraved in 1778 (the first edition with a second dated 1791) was published by Antonio Zatta in his 1779 edition of Atlante Novissimo
This is a beautifully engraved map after Captain James Cooks surveys of 1769. Cook published the first compete map of NZ in 1774, with this more decorative map being published by Zatta some 4 years later. The map contains all of Cooks coastal survey detail with some details of the interior of the islands. Also included are the tracks of Cooks ship HMS Endeavour as he surveyed the coast as well as his approach and exit from New Zealand. Beautiful original hand colour, with a heavy impression denoting an early pressing.
The maps of Venetian publisher Antonio Zatta are noteworthy for their fine craftsmanship and high aesthetics. He was probably the most important Italian map publisher of the late eighteenth century and is responsible for a large number of atlases and single maps of considerable aesthetic and scientific merit.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 19 1/2in x 15 1/2in (495mm x 395mm)
Plate size: - 18in x 14in (455mm x 355mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
New Zealand (or Aotearoa, as the Maori call it) had been first encountered by Europeans in the early 1640s, when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman named the land "Nieuw Zeeland" after the Dutch province. Importantly, Tasman only sailed up the west coast of the North Island and had little notion as to the nature of the islands or their broader geographical context. A small number of Tasman's place names were preserved by Cook (and remain in place to this day), including 'Cape Maria van Diemen' (the northernmost point of the North Island) and the 'Three Kings' islets, where Cook and his men celebrated the Christmas of 1769-the first Europeans to visit the islands for nearly 130 years.
Captain James Cook (1728-1779) is considered to be the greatest explorer of the eighteenth century and was the finest maritime cartographer of the Age of Enlightenment. Having first worked on coal colliers and then distinguished himself as a surveyor in Eastern Canada, in 1768 he became the British Admiralty's choice to lead an unprecedented voyage of discovery. The central impetus for the expedition was to observe the Transit of Venus from Tahiti and then to proceed to explore Terra Australis Incognita, the supposedly rich southern continent. Whereas the first part of the voyage was to be conducted under the auspices of international scientific cooperation, the second part was entirely clandestine and was only communicated to Cook via "Secret Instructions" to be opened once at sea.
Cook's party left Plymouth in August 1768 aboard the converted coal collier HMS Endeavor and proceeded to Tahiti by way of Cape Horn. They arrived in time to observe the Transit of Venus, which occurred June 3, 1769. Cook then proceeded towards New Zealand, to the coordinates recorded by Tasman. As New Zealand was quite conceivably part of Terra Australis, it was Cook's intention to carefully explore and map the region.
On October 6, 1769, the Endeavor sighted the North Island (Te Ika a Maui) at Turanga Nui, which Cook renamed Poverty Bay. He and his crew had arrived on the opposite shore to where Tasman had met the island. Cook proceeded to the South Island (Te Wai Pounamu), carefully mapping both landmasses with a running survey. He used soundings, visual observations, and triangulation regulated by astronomical observations to create his manuscript charts.
Despite being constantly buffeted by wind and rain, and after having some hostile relations with the Maori that resulted in Maori deaths, Cook and his crew managed to circumnavigate both the North and South Islands, proving that they were separate islands divided by the Cook Strait. They also proved the islands were not connected to any southern continent. On March 31, 1770, Cook wrote in his journal that the Endeavour's voyage:
…must be allowed to have set a side the most, if not all, the arguments and proofs that have been advanced by different Authors to prove that there must be a Southern Continent; I mean to the northward of 40 degrees South, for what may lay to the Southward of that Latitude I know not (Cook, Journals I, 290).
The Endeavor left New Zealand at Cape Farewell, sailing west towards Australia, where Cook's crew would become the first Europeans to explore that region. In total, they had surveyed over 2,400 miles of New Zealand coastline in six months.
Upon the Endeavour's return to England in July 1771, Cook became a national hero. He would go on to lead two further voyages that would succeed in illuminating most of the Pacific Ocean to European eyes. On the second expedition, Cook would put to rest the myth of a southern continent. On the third, he kick started the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest of North America while searching for the Northwest Passage. He was killed by Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay in 1779.
Cook returned to England with over 300 manuscript charts and coastal views. The original manuscript chart of New Zealand is now held by the British Library (Add MS 7085, f. 16-7). The chart was drawn, at least in part, by Isaac Smith (1752-1831), a draftsman of considerable skill who worked with Cook in Newfoundland, sailed on the Endeavour and Cook's second voyage, and was related to Cook's wife. Of the New Zealand chart, Cook wrote:
The Chart which I have drawn will best point out the figure and extent of these Islands…beginning at Cape Palliser and proceed round Aehei no mouwe (North Island) by the East Cape &ca. The Coast between these two Capes I believe to be laid down pretty accurate both in its figure and the Course and distance from point to point. The oppertunities I had and the methods I made use on to obtain these requesites were such as could hardly admit of an error… some few places however must be excepted and these are very doubtfull …(Cook, Journals I, 275-6)
The overall delineation is impressively accurate, correctly capturing many of the bays and promontories, and making insightful observations of the interior. Many of the names given by Cook survive to this day, including the Alps, (the great mountain chain of the South Island), Mount Egmont (the volcano on the North Island, also known as Mount Taranaki), the Bay of Islands, the Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, and most intriguingly, Cape Kidnappers (a point on the North Island where Maori warriors attempted to abduct a member of the Endeavor's crew).
There are a few errors, conspicuous only because of the otherwise superb accuracy of the chart. Notably, Cook's "Banke's Island" is in fact a peninsula, part of the South Island. Further south, what looks like a possible peninsula is actually Stewart Island, with the "Isle Solander" to the west. Also, some portions of coast line remain un-surveyed due to adverse conditions or distraction. For example, the portion of coastline near Bankes Island is but a dotted line because Lieutenant Gore had thought he sighted land to the southeast. Upon sailing toward it, the promontory proved to be clouds. Despite such mistakes, the chart is remarkably thorough.
The present chart was printed as part of the official account of Cook's first voyage, which was edited by the literary critic John Hawkesworth and underwritten by the British Admiralty. An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the order of His Present Majesty for making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere… (London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1773) recounted the voyages not only of Cook, but of Byron, Wallis, and Carteret who had also ventured to the Pacific for the Royal Navy earlier in the 1760s. It was engraved by John Abraham Bayly (fl. 1755-1794), a London-based engraver who specialized in cartographic work.
In 1816, the British Hydrographic Office began to reprint the map for its vessels. The chart was continuously consulted into the twentieth century. Due to this longevity, its extraordinary origins, and its important place in the founding of New Zealand as a British colony, Cook's chart is considered to be the most important single map in the history of New Zealand. Due to the complexity of the assignment and the great accuracy of the survey, it is also considered to be one of Cook's very finest maps, and one of the truly great achievements of Enlightenment cartography.
Zatta, Antonio fl. 1757 - 1797
Antonio Zatta was a prominent Italian editor, cartographer, and publisher. Little is known about his life beyond his many surviving published works. It is possible that he was born as early as 1722 and lived as late as 1804. He lived in Venice and his work flourished between 1757 and 1797. He is best known for his atlas, Atlante Novissimo (1779-1785), and for his prolific output of prints and books that were both precisely made and aesthetically pleasing. Zatta clearly had a large network from which to draw information; this is how he was able to publish the first glimpse of the islands visited by Captain Cook in the Atlante Novissimo.
Zattas maps are noteworthy for their fine craftsmanship and high aesthetics. His re-engraving and publication of John Mitchells famous map of North America A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America in 1778, is considered one of the best re-issues of this seminal, landmark map .
......He was probably the most important Italian map publisher of the late eighteenth century and is responsible for a large number of atlases and single maps of considerable aesthetic and scientific merit.... (Portinaro & Knirsch, The Cartography of North America, 1500-1800, p. 319).
Zatta was among the leaders in the eighteenth-century revival of fine printing in Italy and his choice of the text of Raynal to support his re-issue of Mitchells Map, is not surprising. Anne Palms Chalmers describes Zatta as a sardonic writer with the focus of a certain amount of political controversy (Venetian Book Design in the Eighteenth Century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 29, No. 5, January 1971, pp. 226-235). Chalmers describes Zattas printing and design as harmonious in composition with ornament unified by style, quality of line, and tone of printing.
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
1742 Henry Popple & George Le Rouge Large Antique Map of Colonial America
- 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.
1639 Jan Jansson Antique Map of North America Virginia to New York to New England
- Title : Nova Anglia Novvm Belgium et Virginia
- Date : 1639
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 93508
- Size: 23in x 19in (585mm x 485mm)
Description:
This magnificent original copper plate engraved antique landmark 1st edition map of the NE region of North America, the original colonial states from Virginia to New England, was published in the 1639 French edition of Mercators Atlas
A magnificent early map of NE North America published only 19 years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.
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: - 23in x 19in (585mm x 485mm)
Plate size: - 20in x 15 1/4in (505mm x 384mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - Age toning, old archival tape on verso
Background:
This influential map is derived from the less well circulated Johannes de Laet map of 1630. Enlarged and expanded to the north and slightly east, it carries de Laets narrative on the reverse. De Laets map is one of extreme importance, being the first printed to use the names Manbattes (Manhattan) and N. Amsterdam. The nomenclature is virtually identical, with the few minor differences most likely owing to the engravers error. C of Feare is still depicted over 2° too far south. This is not Cape Fear we know of today but actually Cape lookout.
During the fiercely competitive decade of the 1630s the families of Blaeu and Hondius - Jansson of ten produced maps drawn directly from one another. Here, however, Jansson produces one that was not followed by Blaeu, the latter relying upon the more restricted map of Nova Belgica to represent the land north of Chesapeake Bay. A sign of the Dutch influence here is that both atlas producers largely declined to include the advanced cartography of Champlain, thereby relegating it altogether.
There are three know states of this map, this one first published in 1636, the second edition was published in 1647 renamed Nova Belgica Et Anglia Nova within a new square cartouche. State 3 was published in 1694 by Schenk & Valk which included new regional demarcation and a latitude and longitude grid. (Ref: Koeman; M&B; Tooley; Burden)
1646 Jan Jansson Antique Map of China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, SE Asia
- Title : China Veteribus Sinarum Regio nune Incolis Tame dicta
- Date : 1646
- Size: 22 1/2in x 18in (570mm x 455mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 35601
Description:
This incredibly important, original hand coloured copper plate engraved antique map of China by Jan Jansson was published in the 1646 French edition of Janssonius Atlas Nouvs
This antique map Jansson is a stunning example of 17th-century cartography. The map depicts China, Taiwan, and parts of Korea and Japan in intricate detail, with mountains, rivers, and cities clearly labeled and illustrated. The map is adorned with decorative elements, including a detailed cartouche featuring a Chinese dragon and two figures in traditional dress. The title of the map, translated as "China, formerly known as Sina, now inhabited by the Tame," highlights the historical significance of the region and its changing cultural identity over time. Overall, this map is a beautiful and informative representation of China during a pivotal period in its history.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 18in (570mm x 455mm)
Plate size: - 20in x 16 1/2in (508mm x 415mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - Bottom centerfold re-joined, not affecting the image
Background:
This antique map of China, Japan & Korea was created by Johannes Janssonius (Jansson), a prominent Dutch cartographer of the 17th century. The map was published in Amsterdam in the mid 17th century and is considered one of the most important early maps of China.
The map shows China as it was known at the time, including its various provinces, rivers, and mountain ranges. It also depicts neighboring regions such as Korea, Japan, and parts of Southeast Asia. The map is rich in detail and includes various cities and towns, as well as important landmarks such as the Great Wall of China.
Jansson based his map on earlier maps of China, including those produced by the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci and the Dutch explorer Jan Huygen van Linschoten. However, Jansson added his own cartographic touches, such as more precise depictions of the rivers and mountain ranges.
The map's title, China Veteribus Sinarum Regio nune Incolis Tame dicta, translates to China, the ancient land of the Sinae, now known to its inhabitants as Tame. The term Sinae was a term used by ancient Greek and Roman geographers to refer to the Chinese people, while Tame was the name used by the Chinese themselves to refer to their country.
This Map was highly prized by collectors and scholars in Europe during the 17th century. It remains a valuable resource for historians, geographers, and anyone interested in the history of China and cartography.
Jansson, Jan (Janssonius) 1588-1664
Johannes Janssonius, more commonly known to us as Jan Jansson, was a Dutch cartographer and publisher who made significant contributions to the field of cartography during the 17th century.
Born in Arnhem, Netherlands, Janssonius was the son of a bookseller and publisher, who introduced him to the world of publishing and cartography. After studying in Amsterdam, Janssonius took over his father's business and began to publish maps and atlases, many of which were based on the work of famous cartographers like Gerard Mercator.
In 1621, Janssonius formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Henricus Hondius, and together they published atlases, maps, and globes under the name "Hondius-Janssonius". This partnership lasted until Hondius' death in 1651, after which Janssonius continued to publish under his own name.
Janssonius' maps and atlases were highly regarded for their accuracy and detail, and his work was widely distributed throughout Europe. His maps covered a wide range of regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
Janssonius also contributed to the development of the engraving and printing techniques used in cartography, which allowed for more precise and detailed maps to be produced.
Jan Janssonius died in Amsterdam in 1664, but his legacy lived on through his maps and atlases, which remained popular among cartographers and collectors for centuries to come. Today, Janssonius is remembered as one of the most important cartographers of the 17th century, and his work continues to be studied and admired by scholars and enthusiasts around the world.
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
1628 Henricus Hondius Antique Map of South America, inset of Cusco - Beautiful
Antique Map
- Title : America Meridionalis
- Date : 1628
- Size: 22in x 18 1/2in (560mm x 470mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 35645
Description:
This superb, original antique hand coloured folio map of South America, was engraved by Jodocus Hondius & published by his son Henricus for the continuation of Gerard Mercators 1628 French edition of Atlas.
This map is in superb condition with beautiful hand colouring, a deep heavy imprint denoting an early pressing on clean, heavy paper. Original margins, one of the best I have seen for sometime.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22in x 18 1/2in (560mm x 470mm)
Plate size: - 19 1/2in x 14 1/4in (495mm x 363mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
The interior of the map is dominated by the large mythical lake Parime Lacus straddling the equator below Venezuela along with an interesting & mythical continental river system. The huge Rio de la Plata river flows south from the conjectural Eupana Lacus in Brazil, while the R. Grande flows north from the same lake, ostensibly making Brazil an island.
The Strait of Magellan is represented, but Tierra del Fuego (Fogo) is named as part of the mythical Great Southern Land instead of an island.
The map is beautifully engraved with a stippled wave pattern Pacific & Atlantic Oceans, filled with Spanish & English ships, sea monsters and native canoe. The continent is flanked by two elaborate Baroque cartouches; title to the right and a large inset plan of the Capital of the Ancient Incan Empire, Cuzco. A sole representation of the conquered Native Americans is engraved as a lone Indian with a bow and arrow in the interior of Patgonia.
Between 1452 and 1493, a series of papal bulls (Dum Diversas, Romanus Pontifex, and Inter caetera) paved the way for the European colonization and Catholic missions in the New World. These authorized the European Christian nations to \"take possession\" of non-Christian lands and encouraged subduing and converting the non-Christian people of Africa and the Americas.
In 1494, Portugal and Spain, the two great maritime powers of that time, signed the Treaty of Tordesillas in the expectation of new lands being discovered in the west. Through the treaty they agreed that all the land outside Europe should be an exclusive duopoly between the two countries. The treaty established an imaginary line along a north-south meridian 370 leagues west of Cape Verde Islands, roughly 46° 37\' W. In terms of the treaty, all land to the west of the line (which is now known to include most of the South American soil), would belong to Spain, and all land to the east, to Portugal. Because accurate measurements of longitude were not possible at that time, the line was not strictly enforced, resulting in a Portuguese expansion of Brazil across the meridian.
In 1498, during his third voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus sailed near the Orinoco Delta and then landed in the Gulf of Paria (Actual Venezuela). Amazed by the great offshore current of freshwater which deflected his course eastward, Columbus expressed in his moving letter to Isabella I and Ferdinand II that he must have reached heaven on Earth (terrestrial paradise):
Great signs are these of the Terrestrial Paradise, for the site conforms to the opinion of the holy and wise theologians whom I have mentioned. And likewise, the [other] signs conform very well, for I have never read or heard of such a large quantity of fresh water being inside and in such close proximity to salt water; the very mild temperateness also corroborates this; and if the water of which I speak does not proceed from Paradise then it is an even greater marvel, because I do not believe such a large and deep river has ever been known to exist in this world.
Beginning in 1499, the people and natural resources of South America were repeatedly exploited by foreign conquistadors, first from Spain and later from Portugal. These competing colonial nations claimed the land and resources as their own and divided it into colonies.
European diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles and typhus) to which the native populations had no resistance were the overwhelming cause of the depopulation of the Native American population. Cruel systems of forced labor (such as encomiendas and mining industry\'s mita) under Spanish control also contributed to depopulation. Lower bound estimates speak of a decline in the population of around 20–50 per cent, whereas high estimates arrive at 90 per cent.[42] Following this, African slaves, who had developed immunity to these diseases, were quickly brought in to replace them.
The Spaniards were committed to converting their American subjects to Christianity and were quick to purge any native cultural practices that hindered this end. However, most initial attempts at this were only partially successful; American groups simply blended Catholicism with their traditional beliefs. The Spaniards did not impose their language to the degree they did their religion. In fact, the missionary work of the Roman Catholic Church in Quechua, Nahuatl, and Guarani actually contributed to the expansion of these American languages, equipping them with writing systems.
Eventually the natives and the Spaniards interbred, forming a Mestizo class. Mestizos and the Native Americans were often forced to pay unfair taxes to the Spanish government (although all subjects paid taxes) and were punished harshly for disobeying their laws. Many native artworks were considered pagan idols and destroyed by Spanish explorers. This included a great number of gold and silver sculptures, which were melted down before transport to Europe.
In 1616, the Dutch, attracted by the legend of El Dorado, founded a fort in Guayana and established three colonies: Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo.
In 1624 France attempted to settle in the area of modern-day French Guiana, but was forced to abandon it in the face of hostility from the Portuguese, who viewed it as a violation of the Treaty of Tordesillas. However French settlers returned in 1630 and in 1643 managed to establish a settlement at Cayenne along with some small-scale plantations.
Since the sixteenth century there were some movements of discontent to Spanish and Portuguese colonial system. Among these movements, the most famous being that of the Maroons, slaves who escaped their masters and in the shelter of the forest communities organized free communities. Attempts to subject them by the royal army was unsuccessful, because the Maroons had learned to master the South American jungles. In a royal decree of 1713, the king gave legality to the first free population of the continent: Palenque de San Basilio in Colombia today, led by Benkos Bioho. Brazil saw the formation of a genuine African kingdom on their soil, with the Quilombo of Palmares.
Between 1721 and 1735, the Revolt of the Comuneros of Paraguay arose, because of clashes between the Paraguayan settlers and the Jesuits, who ran the large and prosperous Jesuit Reductions and controlled a large number of Christianized Indians.
Between 1742 and 1756, was the insurrection of Juan Santos Atahualpa in the central jungle of Peru. In 1780, the Viceroyalty of Peru was met with the insurrection of curaca Condorcanqui or Tupac Amaru II, which would be continued by Tupac Catari in Upper Peru.
In 1763, the African Cuffy led a revolt in Guyana which was bloodily suppressed by the Dutch. In 1781, the Revolt of the Comuneros (New Granada), an insurrection of the villagers in the Viceroyalty of New Granada, was a popular revolution that united indigenous people and mestizos. The villagers tried to be the colonial power and despite the capitulation were signed, the Viceroy Manuel Antonio Flores did not comply, and instead ran to the main leaders José Antonio Galán. In 1796, Essequibo (colony) of the Dutch was taken by the British, who had previously begun a massive introduction of slaves.
During the eighteenth century, the figure of the priest, mathematician and botanist José Celestino Mutis (1732–1808), was delegated by the Viceroy Antonio Caballero y Gongora to conduct an inventory of the nature of the Nueva Granada, which became known as the Botanical Expedition, which classified plants, wildlife and founded the first astronomical observatory in the city of Santa Fé de Bogotá.
On August 15, 1801, the Prussian scientist Alexander von Humboldt reached Fontibón where Mutis, and began his expedition to New Granada, Quito. The meeting between the two scholars are considered the brightest spot of the botanical expedition. Humboldt also visited Venezuela, Mexico, United States, Chile, and Peru. Through his observations of temperature differences between the Pacific Ocean between Chile and Peru in different periods of the year, he discovered cold currents moving from south to north up the coast of Peru, which was named the Humboldt Current in his honour.
Between 1806 and 1807, British military forces tried to invade the area of the Rio de la Plata, at the command of Home Riggs Popham and William Carr Beresford, and John Whitelocke. The invasions were repelled, but powerfully affected the Spanish authority.
1708 Guillaume Delisle Large Antique Map of North America - 4th State, rare
- Title : Carte Du Mexique et de la Floride des Terres Angloises et des Isles Antilles du Cours et des Environs de la Riviere Mississipi . . .Chez L Auteur sue le Quaide de l Horlage Privilege du Roy po. 20 ana 1703
- Date : 1708
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 93525
- Size: 29 1/4in x 20 1/2in (750mm x 520mm)
Description:
In the world of early 18th century American cartography, no one published as many landmark maps of North America as the French family firm of Delisle. This large original copper-plate engraved scarce map of North America became one of the most copied map of the next 100 years by the likes of Homann, Seutter, Lotter, Sanson and many others. Engraved by Charles Simoneau, this map is the 4th state of seven (identified with the date 1703 in the cartouche with Delisles address in Paris erased) was published by Guillaume Delisle in the <i>Atlas Nouveau.</i>
The 7 states outlined by Tooley are:
- State 1 (1703): De LIsles first address on Rue Des Canettes.
- State 2 (1703): address changed to Quai de lHorloge Couronne de Diamans and the imprint of Renard.
- State 3 (1708): Couronne de Diamans is erased and <i>se trouve a Amsterdam chez L. Renard Libraire prez de la Bourse</i> is added
- State 4 (1708): <i>A Paris Chez L Auteur sur le Quai de l Horloge</i> is added and <i>Couronne de Diamans and Renards</i> imprint are removed and the engravers name (Simoneau) appears below the cartouche.
- State 5 (1722): <i>A Amsterdam Chez Jean Covens & Corneille Mortier avec Privilege 1722</i> Re-engraved and published by Covens & Mortier in Atlas Nouveau
- State 6 (1745): Philippe Buache imprint added below neatline at right.
- State 7 (1783): Title altered to Carte du Mexique et des Etas Unis dAmerique, Partie Meridionale, issued by Dezauche, showing US States and boundaries.
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: - 29 1/4in x 20 1/2in (750mm x 520mm)
Plate size: - 26in x 19 1/2in (660mm x 495mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (20mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
This map, which is one of the three great maps of regional North America conceived by Delisle during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, identifies the colonial affiliations that defined the destiny of North America by the end of the century. As is often the case, the British North American Colonies are shown hemmed in by the Appalachians and crowding the Atlantic coast. The status of present-day South Carolina is dubious, the coloring implying that it may belong to Spain. To the north and west of New England, Canada confines the British colonies even further. In the Southwest, French Floride extends to the Rio Grande and south to present-day Brownsville. The northern boundary of Floride is indicated, except that it abuts Canada, thereby giving France possession of the entire middle part of the continent. Various remarks and locations for Native American tribes are shown, indicating, for example, the locations of the Apache Vaqueros, the Apache Navaio, and the Tiguas. In the French possessions many tribes and their villages are indicated, for example, the famous Cenis in Texas, the Apalache in Georgia and Florida, and the Kicapou near the Great Lakes (their original location before they were pushed all the way to Mexico). Delisles debts to Ibervilles explorations are frequently shown on this map.
The map was compiled from the reports brought back to France from the survivors of the La Salle expedition into the interior of North America and from the information derived from the explorations of Bienville and dIberville. In the year preceding the publication of the map, De LIsle utilized his position with the King of France to gain access to the best available information from the new world. During this time period he assiduously compiled the geographical data from the reports of the French Jesuit Missionaries and Explorers in North America, along with Spanish manuscript maps (often copied by the Missionaries while they were acting in the service of the Spanish as spiritual guides and gaining their confidence).
The result of this work were a series of landmark maps of the North America, including his map of North America ( LAmerique Septentrionale, 1700), Canada and the Great Lakes ( Carte du Canada ou de la Nouvelle France 1703), and the Mississippi Valley & Gulf Coast ( Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi 1708).
The map has been a towering landmark along the path of Western cartographic development. De LIsles map also includes greater accuracy in the Great Lakes region and in its depiction of English settlements along the East Coast. Excellent detail of the Indian villages in East Texas, based upon the reports of dIberville and the Spanish missionaries. The best depiction of the Southwest to date, with early trails & Indian tribes. Cumming described the map as profoundly influential.
Many have suggested that Claude Delisle, father of Guillaume, was the one who conducted the research on the maps, whereas Guillaume was the one who actually drew the maps and engraved the plates. Obviously the maps were a collaborative effort of the Delisle firm.
1715 J B Homann Large Antique Map of North America Virginia Chesapeake Bay NJ, NY
- Title : Virginia Marylandia et Carolina in America Septentrionali Britannorum industria excultae"...Homann
- Date : 1715
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 82002
- Size: 24 1/2in x 21 1/4in (625mm x 540mm)
Description:
This large finely engraved beautifully hand coloured original antique map of Virginia, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, the Carolina's, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and parts west of the Apalchians, was published by J.B Homann in 1715.
An exceptionally beautiful example of J. B. Homann's 1715 map of Virginia, Carolina, Maryland, and New Jersey; considered one of the most important and decorative maps of is region to appear in the 18th century. This fine decorative map covers from New York City and Long Island south along the Atlantic Cost as far as modern day Georgia, and as far west as Lake Erie.
General Description:
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 21 1/4in (625mm x 540mm)
Plate size: - 23in x 19 1/2in (580mm x 490mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
Homann drew this map in response to Virginia Lieutenant-Governor Alexander Spotswood's plan to settled the little known interior of Virginia with German immigrants. Shown here is the first mapping of Germantown Teutsche Statt on the Rappahanock River and Fort Christanna (Christ Anna Fort) on the Makharing River. Fort Christanna was built with the intention of defending the region against incursions from hostile American Indian groups such as the Tuscarora to the west. Christanna also acted as the headquarters of the Virginia Indian Company, a stock venture founded in 1714 with the intention of trading with indigenous groups in the interior.Though Homann's remarkable representation of Spottswood's plan is extraordinarily up-to-date considering that Fort Christana was founded in the same year that this map was initially published, the remainder of the map embraces a number of common misconceptions and cartographic inaccuracies common to the region. Probably the most notable of these is his inclusion of Apalache Lacus. This fictional lake, the source of the May River, appeared on maps of this region since the mid 16th century Le Moyne-De Bry map and was popularized by Mercator and Hondius in 1606.
It would remain on maps well into the mid 18th century before exploration and settlement finally disproved the theory. Further north Lake Erie and been expanded dramatically and shifted somewhat to the south where it takes on the appearance of a vast inland sea occupying the entire northwestern quadrant of the map. This region, west of the English colonies and north as far as Pennsylvana, Homann attaches to the Spanish claims in Florida.
Homann's also offers a wealth of detail along the Atlantic coast, where most of the European colonization efforts were focused. From Long Island, about two-thirds of which is shown, south to Craven County, Carolina, countless towns and cities are identified. New York City is mapped on the southern tip of Manhattan Island, but is not specifically labeled. New Jersey is divided into the colonial provinces of East New Jersey and West New Jersey. Curiously Homann maps a large inland lake "Zuyd Lac" straddling the New Jersey - Pennsylvania border. This is no doubt a early misinterpretation of the natural widening of the Delaware River at the Delaware Water Gap. Heading south along the Delaware River Philadelphia is identified and beautifully rendered as a grid embraced in four quadrants. Both the Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake Bay are rendered in full and even include a number of undersea notations and depth soundings. In Virginia and Carolina the river systems are surprisingly well mapped and a primitive county structure is beginning to emerge.
The early Virginia counties of Rappahannock, Henrico, City, Isle of Wright, Nansemond, Northumberland, Middlesex, Gloster and Corotvk are noted. Similarly in Carolina a number of counties are named, most of which refer to the Lords Proprietors, including Albemarle, Clarenden, and Craven. Cape Fear, Cape Lookout, and Cape Hattaras are noted and a number of anchorages, reefs, and depth sounding are noted along the entire coastline. The lower right quadrant of this map is occupied by a fabulous decorative title cartouche. Centered on an enormous scallop shell bearing the map's title and Homann's Privilege, the cartouche features a number of stylized American Indians trading with European merchants.
The wealth of the region is expressed by an abundance of fish, game, and other trade products. Curling behind the scallop shell is a gigantic stylized alligator looking like nothing so much as a mediaeval dragon. The inclusion of Homann's Provildge in the title cartouche helps us to date this map to about 1715, when Homann was granted the right to add this royal distinction to his maps. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)
1639 Hondius Antique Map of Australia, East Indies, India to China - Duyfken
- Title : India quae Orientalis dicitur et Insulae Adiacentes
- Date : 1639
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 43140
- Size: 22 1/2in x 19 1/4in (570mm x 485mm)
Description:
This fine beautifully hand coloured original antique and very important map of the East Indies, India, SE Asia, China, Japan Philippines and Australia - the first to map the west coast of Cape York Peninsular northern Queensland as well as parts of the SW coast of Western Australia, with place names, was published in the 1639 French edition of Mercators Atlas by Jan Jansson and Henricus Hondius.
An important Dutch map of South East Asia, noteworthy for including the discoveries made in New Guinea and northern Queensland, Australia by the Dutch vessel Duyfken in 1605-06. Under the command of Willem Janzoon, the Duyfken explored the eastern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria, just below the Cape York Peninsula, a venture which was famously the first recorded European contact with Australia.
Condition Report
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Red, yellow, green
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 19 1/4in (570mm x 485mm)
Plate size: - 19 1/4in x 15 1/2in (485mm x 395mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - Light offsetting, light age toning
Verso: - Light age toning
Background:
This map of the East Indies extending from India to Japan and south to Australia, shows some of the Dutch discoveries along the West Australian coastline like the Swan River, Nassau River, Coen River and the Batavia River borrows heavily from the exact map by Joan Blaeu. On the eastern part lower right of the map is a small section of Cape York Peninsular. This map is one of the first printed maps to show any part of the Australian coastline. It continued to be an issued unchanged from 1635 up until the 1660's, long after some of the information it contained had been superseded. This was despite the fact that Joan Blaeu as cartographer to the Dutch East India Company from 1638 to 1673 had access to the latest information concerning the extension of the Dutch maritime power in the East Indies, publishing the results of such discoveries (especially of Australia) on large World maps, such as that of 1648. In other words, atlas map's of the East Indies and part of Australia ignores the results of Abel Tasman's discoveries made during the voyage of 1642-44. In 1642, Tasman was appointed commander of an expedition to the South Seas, during which he discovered the Island later named after him as well as part of the coast of New Zealand. His voyage 1644 coasted along the shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria and along the northern coast of Australia as far as the Tropic of Capricorn.
Tasman's discoveries were published very soon afterwards on Blaeu's large World Maps, rendering it all the more curious that the atlas map was never revised. In affect, this map remained an historical map of the archipelago, showing discoveries made. albeit in a rather haphazard and fortuitous manner by the Dutch, between 1606 and 1623.. The design of the map emphasises the importance of the commercial interests in the East Indies, centred as it is on the heart of what was to become The Netherlands East Indies and later Indonesia. (Ref: Koeman; M&B)
1639 Jan Jansson Antique Map of East Indies, Australia - Voyage of Dufken, Spice Islands
- Title : Indiae Orientalis Nova Descriptio
- Ref #: 43144
- Size: 22 1/2in x 19in (570mm x 485mm)
- Date : 1639
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
Description:
This beautiful, very significant original antique map of SE Asia, the East Indies PNG and significantly a small portion of the west coast of Australia's Cape York Peninsular was published in the 1639 French edition of Mercator's Atlas published by Henricus Hondius and Jan Jansson.
Condition Report:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Later
Colors used: - Yellow, pink, green
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 19in (570mm x 485mm)
Plate size: - 20in x 15 1/2in (510mm x 395mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Uniform age toning, bottom centerfold restored
Plate area: - Uniform age toning, centerfold re-joined
Verso: - Uniform age toning
Background: This landmark map is the first published record of the discoveries made by the Dutch ship Dufken on route to Cape York in Australia. New Guinea ("Landt vande Papuos") is marked the (Is)land next to it is called ÔNieu ZeelandtÕ and the island Duyfkens is named after the ship Duyfken.
With the first publication of this map 27 years had passed since the voyage of the Dufken and its discoveries of PNG and NW Australia had been completed. The Dutch East India Company had suppressed the discoveries until it was sure how profitable or not Australia would be.
Jansson & Hondius were the first to published this map in 1630 and it is believed the information was leaked from the Blaeu firm - the official cartographers to the Dutch East India Company. Surprisingly Blaeu did not publish a similar map for another two years. It must have been incredibly galling for Blaeu to have known of the discoveries for nearly thirty years and then to have been beaten to publication by his fiercest rival Jansson & Hondius.
Given this information this is an incredibly significant map of this imporatant region being the first map published with concrete first hand knowledge of the area which prior had been mapped based mainly on speculation or second hand knowledge.
The text running for two pages on the back of the map generally describes the region or country name, history (as it was), temperature, seasons, soil and agricultural productivity. Also described is the topography, wildlife, local inhabitants their culture and religion, as well as a description of major European and local towns and cities. This text makes extremely enjoyable reading and a very good insight not only into the area described but the general European attitudes towards alien countries and cultures. (Ref: Suraz; Koeman; M&B; Tooley)
1652 Jansson Antique Map of Japan - Korea as an Island, China - Beautiful
Antique Map
- Title : Japonia nova Descriptio
- Date : 1652
- Size: 22 1/2in x 18in (570mm x 455mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 35644
Description:
This fine, beautifully hand coloured original antique, early scarce map of Japan & Korea (as an Island) with parts of eastern China was published in the 1639 French edition of Gerardi Mercators Atlantis Novi Atlas by Jan Jansson and Henricus Hondius.
A beautiful map with sturdy, clean paper original wide margins and beautiful original hand colouring.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Green, red, orange, yellow, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 18in (570mm x 455mm)
Plate size: - 17 1/2in x 13 1/2in (445mm x 340mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Uplift along centerfold
Verso: - Re-enforced along centerfold
Background:
This map published by Jansson is taken directly from the Jodocus Hondius map - first published in 1606 - of Japan which faithfully followed the Ortelius/Teixeira style. Jansson has added an explanation for Korea, saying he was not yet certain whether it was an island or part of the mainland. The rest of Jansson's changes were ornamental, replacing the bottom Chinese Junk with a European ship & monster as well as changing the title and scale cartouches.
Luis Teixeira'a map, which was published by Ortelius in 1595, began a process that would last for three centuries, in which Western printed maps of Japan increasingly approached geographical reality.
1730 Delisle and Covens & Mortier Foundation Antique Map of North America
- Title : L Amerique Septentrionale dressee sur les Observations de Mrs. De L Academie Royale des Sciences & quelques autres & sur les Memoires les plus recens Par G De L Isle A. Amsterdam Chez I Covens & C Mortier Avec Privilege.
- Ref #: 93501-1
- Size: 25 1/2in x 21 1/2in (650mm x 540mm)
- Date : 1700 (1730)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
Description:
This is without doubt one of the most important foundation maps, of North America, published in the early to mid 18th century. This large original hand coloured copper-plate engraved antique map by Johannes Covens & Pierre Mortier, after Guillaume Delisle, that was published in 1730 in Atlas nouveau de dicerses cartes choisies des Meilleurs Geographes comme Sanson, G De Lisle &c....A Amsterdam.....
The first edition of this map was mistakenly dedicated to Nicolas Sanson, in the title. This oversight was corrected to Delisle in this 1730 edition.
This map is beautiful with original borders beautiful hand colouring on heavy stable paper.
Covens & Mortier (fl 1721-1866) was an eighteenth century cartographic publishing house. The company was founded by Johannes Covens (1697-1774) and Cornelis Mortier (1699-1783) and was located in Vijgendam in Amsterdam .
The collaboration between the two men began after the death of Pieter Mortier (1661-1711), son of a French political refugee. In 1690, Mortier obtained the privilege of distributing maps and atlases from French publishers, in the Netherlands . His widow continued business until his death in 1719 . His son Cornelis took over the business, under the name of his father.
In November 1721 Cornelis Mortier founded a company with Johannes Covens I. He was married in the same year to Corneliss sister. Thus the company of Covens & Mortier was born.
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: - 25 1/2in x 21 1/2in (650mm x 540mm)
Plate size: - 23in x 19in (585mm x 490mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
There are many reasons why this rare 1st edition foundation map is important. It contains detail of radical changes both to the interior of North America and helps debunk many fundamentally held ideas of the coastlines. Some of these ideas included The Great lakes, California as an island and previously invented ideas of the interior, NW & NE coastlines.
Specifically the shape of the Great Lakes are changed based on information from the great Italian cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli.
The Mississippi valley is well developed with recent French settlement of d\\\'Iberville at Bilochy and the forts at Bon Secours and St Louis. The map also corrects the error of the western swing of the lower part of the Mississippi River, moving its mouth to essentially its correct position on the Gulf of Mexico.
Delisle has also corrected longitude positions and was the first to revert to a peninsular form for California. He stops his western coast at Cape Mendocin and is the first map to show the Saragossa Sea.
The map also illustrates the routes of explorers such as Cortez, Drake, D\\\'Olivier, Gaeten and Mendana, and indicates the locates of a number of Indian tribes, including the Apaches.
As this is a French map we see many of the French strong points in the NE such as Tadousac, Quebec, Fort Sorel, Montreal & Fort Frontenac included. The English settlements are confined to the east of the Alleghenies, with Fort and River Kinibeki as the border between New England and Arcadia.
Such was the improvement of this map, and the sterling reputation of Delisle, that within a few years other publishers issued their own copies of the map, which continued to appear until the 1780s. The importance of this map cannot be overstated in the progression of American cartography. (Ref: M&B; Tooley)
1719 Henri Chatelain Large Antique Map of Java Indonesia - EIC Dutch East Indies
Antique Map
- Title : Carte de L ' Isle de Java; Partie Occidentale, Partie Orientale, Dresee tout Nouvellement
- Date : 1719
- Size: 36 3/4in x 17 1/2in (980mm x 445mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 35643
Description:
This large fine beautifully hand coloured highly detailed original antique map of the Indonesian Island of Java was published by Henri Abraham Chatelain in 1718 was published in his famous Atlas Historique.
This is a landmark map at a time when the Dutch East India Company still had stranglehold on the trade of the East Indies with bright hand colouring, clean strong sturdy paper and a heavy clear impression donating an early pressing.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Later
Colors used: - Green, red, orange, yellow, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 36 3/4in x 17 1/2in (980mm x 445mm)
Plate size: - 34 1/2in x 15 1/2in (900mm x 395mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Folds as issued
Plate area: - Folds as issued
Verso: - Folds as issued
Background:
A beautiful example of Henri Chatelain's important 1718 map of Java. Covers the island in full as well as adjacent parts of Sumatra and Bali. Offers beautiful engraving and extraordinary detail throughout, noting rice plantations, mountain ranges, grazing lands, forests, and in many places, elephants and gazelle. The previously unknown southern shore is mapped both correctly and in considerable detail. Also shows some offshore reefs and other dangers. The volcanic island of Krakatau, here identified as Cracatao, which nearly 150 years later would erupt with devastating consequences, appears in the Strait of Sunda between Java and Sumatra. In the lower left quadrant an inset details the city and port of Batavia, then the center of Dutch East Indian Company's activity in the region. Appearing in tapestry style windows at the top of the map is an area of extensive text. Composed by Gueudeville, this is a discussion of the history of the lands and countries depicted. Additional textual data referencing the cities and villages of Java, appears to the left and right of the map proper.
In its day Chatelain's map of Java was by far the most sophisticated study of the island yet published. Previous to this map, the most advanced cartographic rendering of Java was Van der Aa's 1714 mapping of the region, which though it correctly identified general form of Java's northern shore, identified the southern shore as "Parte Incognita". Of course the Dutch were active in this region since the 17th century and had no doubt produced accurate manuscript charts of the island, but these were carefully guarded trade secrets controlled by the powerful Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (V.O.C. or Dutch East India Company). The publication of Chatelain's map of Java, offered here, suggests that Chatelain somehow obtained his data from a source outside of the V.O.C. That Chatelain's map was copied by Johannes Van Keulen II, the V.O.C.'s own cartographer, nine years later suggests that even the V.O.C., who maintained an active presence on the island, did not possess more accurate data. It is highly likely that Chatelain extracted much of his cartographic information on Java from Hadrien Reland, a Dutch scholar and philologist who composed a number of works on the Indonesian Archipelago in the early 18th century.
A highly important map of the region and a must for an serious collection focusing on the East Indies.
The Atlas Historique published by Henri Chatelain was part of a major work of its time, an encyclopedia in seven volumes, including geography as one of its main subjects. The text was by Nicholas Gueudeville and the maps by Chatelain. The Atlas included one of the finest map of America (four sheets) surrounded by vignettes and decorative insets. The Atlas Historique was completed between 1705 and 1720, further issues were published up to 1739. The series was published in Amsterdam, with Chatelain’s maps based on those of G. Delisle. (Koeman; M&B; Tooley; Burden; AMPR)
1782 Matthaus Lotter Large World Map Tracking of Cooks Voyages 1768, 1772 & 1776
- Title : Mappe Monde ou carte generale de l`Univers sur une projection nouvelle d`une sphere ovale pour mieux entendre les distances entre l`Europe et Amerique avec le tour du monde du Lieut Cook et Tous Les Decouvertes Nouvelles...MDCCLXXXII
- Date : 1782 (2nd edition)
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
- Ref: 35646
- Size: 38 1/2in x 21in (985mm x 535mm)
Description:
This very large, impressive original copper-plate engraved antique World Map, on an Ortelius Oval Projection, was engraved and published by Matthäus Albrecht Lotter in 1782, dated in title.
The map was first issued in 1778 and re-issued in 1782 & 1787 and included all three of Cooks voyages of discovery.
This map was one of the first world maps published to cash in on the publicity over Captain James Cooks Circumnavigation of the world and the first European survey of New Zealand and the East Coast of Australia. Beautifully executed and dominated by New Holland, Australia, for the first time almost complete on a world map.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 38 1/2in x 21in (985mm x 535mm)
Plate size: - 37 1/2in x 19 1/4in (955mm x 495mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Folds as issue, light soiling
Plate area: - Folds as issue, light soiling
Verso: - Folds as issue, light soiling
Background:
This large world map was one of the first to show the discoveries of the east coast of Australia and New Zealand by James Cook on his first voyage of Discovery. The shadow line from Tasmania west to Western Australia was not filled in until the later discoveries of Bass Strait by Bass and Matthew Flinders in 1797 and the southern coast by Baudin and Flinders in 1803. Also included along the New Holland coastline is the earlier Dutch discoveries of Hartog 1616, the van Leeuwin 1619, Nuyts 1627, de Wit 1628 and Tasman 1642-44. The Trial Islands near present-day Dampier, named after the English ship the Trial, which were incorrectly charted by Gerritsz after the false reports provided by Captain Brookes, are also noted.
Cooks First Voyage (1768-1771)
The first voyage under Captain James Cook\\\\\\\'s command was primarily of a scientific nature. The expedition on the Endeavour initially sailed to Tahiti to observe the transit of the planet Venus in order to calculate the earth\\\\\\\'s distance from the sun. Cook landed on the South Pacific island in April of 1769 and in June of that year the astronomical observations were successfully completed. In addition to these labors, very good relations with the Tahitians were maintained and the naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel C. Solander conducted extensive ethnological and botanical research.
Another purpose of the voyage was to explore the South Seas to determine if an inhabitable continent existed in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Upon leaving Tahiti, Cook named and charted the Society Islands and then continued southwest to New Zealand. His circumnavigation and exploration of that country also resulted in a detailed survey. Cook proceeded to Australia, where he charted the eastern coast for 2,000 miles, naming the area New South Wales. As a result of these surveys, both Australia and New Zealand were annexed by Great Britain. In addition to these explorations, the Endeavour returned to England without a single death from scurvy among its men, an historic feat at the time. The combination of these accomplishments brought Cook prominence, promotion, and the opportunity to lead further expeditions.
Cooks Second Voyage (1772-1775)
Based on the success of his first voyage, Cook was appointed by the Admiralty to lead a second expedition. Two ships were employed with Cook commanding the Resolution and Captain Tobias Furneaux in charge of the Adventure. The purpose was to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible to confirm the location of a southern continent. Cook proved that there was no Terra Australis, which supposedly was located between New Zealand and South America. Cook was convinced, however, that there was land beyond the southern ice fields. In his pursuit of this idea, this expedition was the first European voyage to cross the Antarctic Circle. In addition, in two great sweeps through the Southern latitudes, Cook made an incredible number of landfalls including New Zealand, Easter Island, the Marquesas, Tahiti and the Society Islands, the Tonga Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and a number of smaller islands.
In addition to these navigational accomplishments and the accompanying expansion of geographical knowledge, the expedition also recorded a vast amount of information regarding the Pacific islands and peoples, proved the value of the chronometer as an instrument for calculating longitude, and improved techniques for preventing scurvy.
Cooks Third Voyage (1776-1779)
In the course of his first two voyages, Cook circumnavigated the globe twice, sailed extensively into the Antarctic, and charted coastlines from Newfoundland to New Zealand. Following these achievements, Cooks third voyage was organized to seek an efficient route from England to southern and eastern Asia that would not entail rounding the Cape of Good Hope. The search for such a Northwest (or Northeast) Passage had been on the agenda of northern European mariners and merchants since the beginning of European expansion in the late fifteenth century. England\\\\\\\'s growing economic and colonial interests in India in the later eighteenth century provided the stimulus for the latest exploration for this route.
Cook, again in command of the Resolution, was to approach the Northwest Passage from the Pacific accompanied by a second ship, the Discovery, captained by Charles Clerke. The ships left England separately, regrouped at Cape Town, and continued on to Tasmania, New Zealand, and Tahiti. The expedition then sailed north and made landfall at Christmas Island and the Hawaiian Islands. Cook continued northward and charted the west coast of North America from Northern California as far as the Bering Strait. He returned to Hawaii for the winter and was killed in a skirmish with natives on February 14, 1779. Upon Cooks death, Clerke took command of the expedition but died six months later. The ships returned to England in 1780 under John Gore, who had commanded the Discovery after Cooks death. From start to finish, the voyage had lasted more than four years. (Ref Tooley; M&B; Clancy)
The Ortelius Oval Projection is a map projection used for world maps largely in the late 16th and early 17th century. It is neither conformal nor equal-area but instead offers a compromise presentation. It is similar in structure to a pseudocylindrical projection but does not qualify as one because the meridians are not equally spaced along the parallels. The projection\'s first known use was by Battista Agnese (flourished 1535–1564) around 1540, although whether the construction method was truly identical to Ortelius\'s or not is unclear because of crude drafting and printing. The front hemisphere is identical to Petrus Apianus\'s 1524 globular projection.
The projection reached a wide audience via the popular map Typus Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius beginning in 1570. The projection (and indeed Ortelius maps) were widely copied by other mapmakers such as Giovanni Pietro Maffei, Fernando de Solis, and Matteo Ricci.
1655 Joan Blaeu Antique Map of Japan, Korea & parts of China - Beautiful
- Title : Japonia Regnum
- Date : 1655
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Ref: 92811
- Size: 24in x 21in (610mm x 535mm)
Description:
This fine beautifully hand coloured original antique map of Japan & Korea - the seventeenth and last of the maps provided by the Jesuit priest Martino Martini to Joan Blaeu - was published by Joan Blaeu in his 1665 edition of Atlas Simenis.
Martinis map was to provide the most accurate depiction of the general outlines of the principle islands of Japan - Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku - for more than a century. The map was copied extensively by other mapmakers throughout the remainder of the seventeenth century and was replaced during the eighteenth century by maps that were in nearly all respects considerably inferior, albeit rather more flamboyant in design. Martinis first hand knowledge of the Chinese mainland enabled him to draw Korea correctly, for the first time on a printed map, as a peninsular even though little interior detail is shown. However what lay to the north of Japan was a mystery, not only Europeans, but also to the Japanese and Chinese as well. Even as early as 1613, William Adams, an Englishman living in Japan for many years, had written back to England recommending Japan as a base for "discouerie to the northward...never hath bin better menes to discouer". As with his general map of China, Martini here provides information on the internal administrative divisions in Japan; each of the feudal fiefdoms is shown, with the chief town in each, while some evidence of the activity of Jesuit missions, since the arrival of Francis Xavier in 1549, can be gathered from the town symbols surmounted by a small cross. This is one of the finest maps of Japan ever published, the engraving is strong, paper excellent and clean with beautiful original hand colour. (Ref: Koeman; M&B)
General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - White
Age of map color: - Early color
Colors used: - Pink, green, yellow, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic & beautiful
Paper size: - 24in x 21in (610mm x 535mm)
Plate size: - 22 1/2in x 16 3/4in (570mm x 425mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
1730 George Seutter Large Antique Map of Australia, East Indies, SE Asia, China
- Title: India Orientalis cum Adjacentibus Insulis Nova Delineatione ob oculos posita ..Matth. Suettro.
- Date: 1730
- Condition: (A+) Condition
- Ref: 43155
- Size: 25 ½in x 21 ½in (650mm x 545mm)
Description: This large, scarce & beautifully hand coloured original map of Australia & SE Asia was published by Georg Mattraus Seutter in 1730. This is one of the best examples of this map I have seen, especially with the colouring. In excellent condition, a must in any Australian or SE Asian collection.
Condition Report
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original & later
Colors used: - Yellow, pink, green, orange, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 25 ½in x 21 ½in (650mm x 545mm)
Plate size: - 23in x 19 1/4in (580mm x 490mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background: The map extends from China, Japan and Persia in the North and in the south stretching from The Maldives east to Northern Australia. Of note, Australia continues to be attached to Nova Guinea, albeit with some hesitation, as the image extends outside the inner neat-line to convey this information - even though 20+ names are confidently engraved around Northern Australia Coastline. The detail throughout Southeast Asia is informative and up-to-date and the print style typically strong. The cartouche is one of Seutter's most ornate, with elaborate scenes from sea, land, jungle and mythology. This map rarely appears on the market, as it was only included in select copies of Seutters atlas. (Ref: Norwich; M&B; Tooley)
1628 Jodocus Hondius & Gerard Mercator Antique Map of Africa - Beautiful
- Title : Nova Africae Tabula. Auctore Jodoco Hondio Excusum in aedibus Auctoris Amsterodami.
- Ref #: 35626
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Size: 22 1/2in x 17 1/4in (615mm x 530mm)
- Date: 1628
Description:
This original beautifully hand coloured copper plate engraved antique map of Africa by Jodocus Hondius, after Gerard Mercator, was published in the 1628 Latin edition of Mercators Atlas Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes De Fabrica Mundi
This is a beautiful map with original hand colouring, heavy age toned paper with a deep impression. Beautiful map.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - Off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 17 1/4in (615mm x 530mm)
Plate size: - 20in x 15in (510mm x 385mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
Being part of the Mediterranean world, the northern coasts of the African continent as far as the Straits of Gibraltar and even round to the area of the Fortunate Isles (the Canaries) were reasonably well known and quite accurately mapped from ancient times. In particular, Egypt and the Nile Valley were well defined and the Nile itself was, of course, one of the rivers separating the continents in medieval T-O maps. Through Arab traders the shape of the east coast, down the Red Sea as far as the equator, was also known but detail shown in the interior faded into deserts with occasional mountain ranges and mythical rivers. The southern part of the continent, in the Ptolemaic tradition, was assumed to curve to the east to form a land-locked Indian Ocean. The voyages of the Portuguese, organized by Henry the Navigator in the fifteenth century, completely changed the picture and by the end of the century Vasco da Gama had rounded the Cape enabling cartographers to draw a quite presentable coastal outline of the whole continent, even if the interior was to remain largely unknown for the next two or three centuries.
The first separately printed map of Africa (as with the other known continents) appeared in Munster\'s Geographia from 1540 onwards and the first atlas devoted to Africa only was published in 1588 in Venice by Livio Sanuto, but the finest individual map of the century was that engraved on 8 sheets by Gastaldi, published in Venice in 1564. Apart from maps in sixteenth-century atlases generally there were also magnificent marine maps of 1596 by Jan van Linschoten (engraved by van Langrens) of the southern half of the continent with highly imaginative and decorative detail in the interior. In the next century there were many attractive maps including those of Mercator/Hondius (1606), Speed (1627), Blaeu (1 630), Visscher (1636), de Wit (c. 1670), all embellished with vignettes of harbours and principal towns and bordered with elaborate and colourful figures of their inhabitants, but the interior remained uncharted with the exception of that part of the continent known as Ethiopia, the name which was applied to a wide area including present-day Abyssinia. Here the legends of Prester John lingered on and, as so often happened in other remote parts of the world, the only certain knowledge of the region was provided by Jesuit missionaries. Among these was Father Geronimo Lobo (1595-1678), whose work A Voyage to Abyssinia was used as the basis for a remarkably accurate map published by a German scholar, Hiob Ludolf in 1683. Despite the formidable problems which faced them, the French cartographers G. Delisle (c. 1700-22), J. B. B. d\'Anville (1727-49) and N. Bellin (1754) greatly improved the standards of mapping of the continent, improvements which were usually, although not always, maintained by Homann, Seutter, de Ia Rochette, Bowen, Faden and many others in the later years of the century.