1745 Pieter Mortier Antique World Map with California as an Island

Cartographer : Pierre Mortier

Description:
This large original copper-plate engraved antique World Map, on Mercators Projection, by Pieter Mortier, was first published in the late 17th century and was re-issued over the next 60 years in both Atlases and Bibles illustrating the world and the heavens, as understood in a century of huge change.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 21in x 17 1/2in (480mm x 340mm)
Plate size: - 21in x 17 1/2in (480mm x 340mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - Early mounting on contemporary paper

Background:
Finely engraved map, with California as an island with the Detroit d Anian in the west, connects by dotted lines, through the Northwest Passage to Button\'s Bay, which is located to the west of Hudson Bay. In North America there is an erroneous large lake shown as the source for the Rio Norte, which flows southwest and empties into the Gulf of California. In the Great Lakes region there is a large open-ended lake named Mer Douce. The northeast coast of Asia is severely truncated and shows Witsen\'s Cap de Glaces. A small coastline of New Zealand appears in the Pacific. Australia\'s northern coast is shown connected to New Guinea, and two disjointed coastlines appear to the south including Van Diemen\'s Land. Five spheres are presented along the top, depicting Day and Night, the Flood, the phases of the moon, and the Western and Eastern Hemispheres.

Mortier, Pieter 1661 - 1711
Mortier was an 18th-century mapmaker and engraver from the Northern Netherlands.
Mortier was born in Leiden. According to Houbraken, David van der Plas worked with Mortier on etchings for Bybelsche Tafereelen (Bible stories), published in Amsterdam in 1700. He was the father of Cornelis Mortier (1699–1783), who in partnership with Johannes Covens I (1697–1774) began the map publishing company Covens & Mortier (1721–1866). He won the privilege in 1690 of publishing maps and atlases by French publishers in Amsterdam. He also used this privilege to win a similar set of privileges for printing an illustrated print bible in 1700. He died in Amsterdam in 1711

$1,250.00