• 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)

• Title : Terra Sancta quae in Sacris Terra Promissionis olim Palestina....Guiljesmi Blaeuw 1629
• Date : 1629
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
• Ref:  93509
• Size: 23 1/2in x 20in (590mm x 495mm)

Description:
This magnificent original copper plate engraved antique map of the Holy Land, Terra Sancta, Palestine was one of the very few dated maps printed by Willem Blaeu. The map was engraved by Jodocus Hondius the younger and published by Willem Blaeu in the 1643 French edition of Atlas Novus.

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: - 23 1/2in x 20in (590mm x 495mm)
Plate size: - 20in x 15 1/4in (505mm x 384mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background:
This is one of the very few maps published in Blaeus Atlas that bears a date. It was actually made by Jodocus Hondius the younger in 1629, but was not printed until after the plate was purchased by Willem Blaeu (who added his imprint in the lower part of the cartouche)
At this time, many of the maps of Palestine were oriented to show the east at the top to focus on Jerusalem. Here, the orientation is inverted so that Blaeus map shows Palestine as it might have been viewed by Moses from the top of Mt Pisgah. The decorative features are Old Testament in inspiration: Moses holding the Tablets of the Law, stands to the left of the cartouche, Aaron to the right, while in the Mediterranean Jonah is about to be swallowed by the whale and in the Sinai is shown the route of the Exodus. In the Red Sea at Yam Suf, Pharaohs armies are shown drowning. The lands of the Twelve Tribes are shown straddling both banks of the Jordan and the city of Jerusalem can be seen occupying a place of honour in the upper centre of the map.
The geographical detail of the map is taken from an large inset on a large map of Palestine by the traveller Pieter Laicksteen and the mapmaker to Phillip II of Spain, Christian s Grooten, published at Antwerp in 1570. This inset map, its importance recognised by Hondius and by Blaeu, was unorthodox in its treatment of the outline of the Red Sea and its triangular outline for the Sinai peninsula - lone before either was finally admitted by mapmakers as more accurate than traditionally accepted versions.
The Blaeus retained this map for all editions of the firms atlas for more than thirty years from 1630, even though the rival publisher Johannes Jansson issued a more detailed seven sheet map of the region in his own atlas.

• Title : Partie De L Amerique Septentrionale, qui Comprend Le Cours De L Ohio...Par le Sr Robert de Vaugondy
• Date : 1768
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
• Ref:  93504
• Size: 30in x 21in (760mm x 550mm)

Description:
This large original beautifully hand coloured, scarce 2nd edition antique map of the east coast of the United States, illustrating the course of the Ohio River and stretching from New England to the Carolinas, north to the Great Lakes and south to the Mississippi - with an inset map of The Carolinas - was published in 1768 by Robert Du Vaugondy in his Atlas Universal.
This is one of the best examples of this map I have seen, beautiful hand colour on age toned heavy paper with original margins with a heavy dark ink denoting an early pressing.

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 22in (760mm x 560mm)
Plate size: - 25in x 19 1/2in (635mm x 495mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background: 
Second state of the early de Vaugondy map of the British colonies, with changes after the 1763 Treaty of Paris, with Virginia & Carolina extended to the Mississippi and Pennsylvania extended to Lake Erie. The majority of geographical information is based upon John Mitchells great map of North America from the mid 1750s, also drawing from Lewis, Evans on the Middle British Colonies and Joshua Frys and Peter Jeffersons map of Virginia and Maryland. The Mitchell map was the culmination of many years of British surveying in the North American Colonies and was considered one of the best maps of the continent available to Europeans and Americans in the mid-eighteenth century.
De Vaugondys rendition does not copy the full scope of Mitchells map but instead focuses on the colonies stretching from southern Maine to the Carolinas. In the top left corner is an inset of South Carolina and Georgia. De Vaugondy also pays special attention to the river systems and settlements. This map shows some of the earliest accurate information of the trans-Allegheny regions (the Ohio River, Kentucky, Tennessee and Parts of Ohio) and inland areas to the southeast of the Great Lakes and interior of New England.
Maine is still part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. During this era. The dispute between New Hampshire and New York over who controlled the area which is now Vermont has been resolved. The outbreak of the French & Indian War (Seven Years War) briefly suspended interest in the disputed area, and it was not until 1764 that the British crown upheld New Yorks claim to Vermont. Included is a beautiful title cartouche in the Rococo style. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)

• Title : Amerique Septentrionale ...Les Etats Unis...1783...Robert De Vaugondy
• Ref #:  93503-1
• Size: 27 1/2in x 21 1/2in (700mm x 540mm)
• Date : 1783
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This large original beautifully hand coloured copper plate antique map of post revolutionary North America & the newly form United States was engraved in 1783 - dated - and was published by Robert De Vaugondy in his large elephant folio Atlas Universal
This map is in beautiful original condition, original margins, original outline colour on strong sturdy paper with a heavy impression. A must for any collector of maps of historical importance.

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: - 27 1/2in x 21 1/2in (700mm x 540mm)
Plate size: - 25 1/2in x 18 1/2in (650mm x 465mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background:
This is Robert De Vaugondys 5th State of his North America map and one of the first to show the newly liberated American States, after the American Revolutionary War 1775 - 1783.
The maps includes an engraved borderline for the newly founded United States as agreed upon by the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Also, the maps title was altered from earlier states to incorporate the name (in French) for the United States, Etats Unis, which also appears on the map itself. This state includes much other new information along with the place names that were added to the previous state, such as the Newport, New York City, and Bermuda. Florida is shown as an archipelago and the coastline of California is quite curious, with a continuation of the coastline in the inset map of the Northwest showing some of the mythical cartography, such as the Sea of the West and River of the West, which were debated among map scholars and explorers until Captain James Cook dispelled these myths in his three Voyages to the Pacific.
The map also locates the area identified as Fou-sang, reflecting the belief that Chinese mariners may have reached America, the location of the mythical colony of Fou-sang. According to some historians such as Charles Godfrey Leland and Joseph de Guignes ( Le Fou-Sang des Chinois est-il lAmérique Mémoires de lAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, tome 28, Paris, 1761), the distances given by Hui Shen (20,000 Chinese li) would locate Fou-sang on the west coast of the American continent, near British Columbia.

• Title : Totius Americae Septentrionalis et Meridionalis Novissima Representatio quam ex fingulis Geographorum Tabulis collecta luci publicae accommodavit...Johannes Baptista Homann
• Ref #:  93506
• Size: 24in x 21in (610mm x 525mm)
• Date : 1720
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This large original beautifully hand coloured copper plate antique map of America was published by Johann Baptist Homann in 1720.
A very nice example of this early landmark American map by one of the greats of 17th & 18th century German cartography.

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 21in (610mm x 525mm)
Plate size: - 22 1/2in x 19in (565mm x 490mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - Bottom centerfold rejoined at bottom of map, not affecting the image

Background:
This is the second state of Homanns map of America that includes an elongated northwest Coastline is called Costa Terrae Borealis incognitae detecta a Dom: Ioanne de Gama navigante ex China in Novam Hispaniam. The map provides credit for the discovery of this coastline to João de Gama (1540-1591). João da Gama, the grandson of Vasco da Gama, was a Portuguese explorer and colonial administrator in the Far East, during the last quarter of the 16th century. Da Gama sailed from Macau to the northeast and rounded Japan by north, crossing the Pacific Ocean at the northernmost latitudes. The lands northeast of Japan, which João da Gama discovered, were the subject of legend and speculation in the centuries that followed, inspiring its search by European powers.
Good detail throughout the map, especially in the southwest and near the Great Lakes, which were then actively being explored by the French fur traders and Hudson\'s Bay Company.

• Title : Aethiopia Superior vel interior vulgo Abissinorum sive Presbiteri Joannnis Imperium...
• Ref #:  93510
• Size: 23in x 18in (585mm x 475mm)
• Date : 1646
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This original hand coloured copper-plate engraved antique map of Central and NE Africa - the mythical land of Emperor Prestor John - was published in the 1645 Latin Edition of edition of Joan Blaeus Atlas Novus.

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 18in (585mm x 475mm)
Plate size: - 19 1/2in x 15 1/4in (495mm x 390mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background:
Rumours of the mythical Emperor Prestor John began in Europe around 1150AD, that somewhere in Asia there was a powerful Christian Emperor named Presbyter Johannes (with the court title of Gurkhan), who had founded the kingdom of Kara Khitai. He had broken the power of the Musselman in his own domain after a fierce and bloody fight. The mysterious Priest-King became a symbol of hope in the Christian world beset by Mongol hordes. Pope Alexander III resolved to make contact with Presbyter John, and his first step was to address a letter to him (dated 27th September 1177). The Pope\'s physician was dispatched to deliver the letter in person. He never returned. Pope Innocent IV was even more determined than his predecessor, and decided to convert the Barbarians instead of conquer them. Dominican and Franciscan missionaries as well as civil ambassadors of peace plodded back and forth between the Pope, the King of France and the Mogul Khan. These travelers soon learned that His Highness Presbyter Johannes and the Christian kingdom in deepest Asia were popular myths. But the popular fancy was not easily dispelled, and instead of allowing the bubble to be punctured, the people merely transferred the kingdom of Presbyter John to Africa - especially Abyssinia. No-one knew very much about Abyssinia. A few die hards like John de Plano Carpini and Marco Polo persisted in the belief that Presbyter John still reigned in his splendor deep in the heart of the Orient. On the larger map in Higdens Polychronicon the empire of Presbyter John was located in the lower Scythia within the limits of Europe, but the map of Marino Sanuto it was placed in further India. It was moved again to Central Asia and ended up in Abyssinia. The legend persisted, however, and four hundred years after Pope Alexander III wrote his letter to Presbyter Johannes, Abraham Ortelius, a Dutch map publisher issued a separate map titled Presbyteri Johannis Siv Abissinorum Iperii Descripto. (Ref: M&B, Tooley; Norwich)

• Titles: Map of the Empire of Germany, Including All the States Comprehend under that name: with the Kingdom of Priussia &c.
  Sizes: 48 1/2in x 41in (1.230m x 1.040m)
  
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
• Date: 1759
• Ref #:  93418

Description:
This stunning very large, scare and original copper-plate engraved antique 1st edition wall map of Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, Poland, Hungary, Netherlands and Northern Italy by the English cartographers Louis d arcy Delarochette & Thomas Kitchin (engraver) was published by Robert Sayer in 1759.
Incredibly detailed map of central Europe showing political boundaries as they were in the mid 18th century. Much detail noting roadways, towns, castles, monasteries, forests, swamps, rivers, towns, cities, mountains and much more. An incredible insight into mid 18th century Europe.

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: - 48 1/2in x 41in (1.230m x 1.040m)
Plate size: - 48 1/2in x 41in (1.230m x 1.040m)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background:
Louis d Arcy Delarochette 1731 - 1802 was a British cartographer active in the mid to late 18th century. Collaborated with many famous British cartographers including Kitchin, Faden, Laurie & Whittle and Thomas Jefferies. Well know for his large scale maps.

Robert Sayers 1724 - 1794 was an important English map publisher and engraver active from the mid to late 18th century. Sayer was born in Sunderland, England, in 1725. He may have clerked as a young man with the Bank of England, but this is unclear. His brother, James Sayer, married Mary Overton, daughter-in-law of John Overton and widow of Philip Overton. Sayer initially worked under Mary Overton, but by December of 1748 was managing the Overton enterprise and gradually took it over, transitioning the plates to his own name. When Thomas Jefferys went bankrupt in 1766, Sayer offered financial assistance to help him stay in business and, in this way, acquired rights to many of the important Jefferys map plates as well as his unpublished research. From about 1774, he began publishing with his apprentice, John Bennett (fl. 1770-1784), as Sayer and Bennett, but the partnership was not formalized until 1777. Bennett retired in 1784 following a mental collapse and the imprint reverted to Robert Sayer. From 1790, Sayer added Robert Laurie and James Whittle to his enterprise, renaming the firm Robert Sayer and Company. Ultimately, Laurie and Whittle partnered to take over his firm. Sayer retired to Bath, where, after a long illness, he died. During most of his career, Sayer was based at 53 Fleet Street, London. His work is particularly significant for its publication of many British maps relating to the American Revolutionary War. Unlike many map makers of his generation, Sayer was a good businessman and left a personal fortune and great estate to his son, James Sayer, who never worked in the publishing business.

• Title : Karte von den N.W. Amerikanischen und N.OE. Asiatischen Kusten nach den Untersuchungen des Kapit. Cook in den Jah. 1778 und 1779
• Ref #:  93436
• Size: 30 1/2in x 23 1/2in (765mm x 575mm)
• Date : 1788
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This large original copper plate engraved antique map of the discoveries of Captain James Cook in NW America during his third voyage of discovery by Henry Roberts was engraved by I.C. Lackner in 1788 - dated - for the 1788 edition Franz Anton Schraembl edition of the Allgemeiner Grosser Atlas

A rare German language variant of Cooks map of his explorations along the northwest coast of America and the northeast coast of Asia. Based upon original work by Cooks cartographer Henry Roberts. Depicts much of Siberia and Kamtschaka in Asia and, in America, shows Canada as far east as the western portions of Hudson Bay. Alaska and Asia are shown with considerable accuracy though Vancouver Island is missing. Shows several lakes west of Hudson Bay in what is today northwestern Canada. Numerous depth soundings detailed along the exploration tracks. In addition to Cooks work, also notes the explorations of Bodega and the inland discoveries of Hearn, and others.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 30 1/2in x 23 1/2in (765mm x 575mm)
Plate size: - 28 1/2n x 16 1/2in (725mm x 420mm)
Margins: - Min 2in (50mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background:
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)

Schraembl, Franz Anton 1751-1803
Schraembl was a Vienna based cartographer working in the later part of the 18th century. Schraembl was partnered with Joseph von Reilly. His great work, the Allgemeiner Grosser Atlas was started in 1786. This ambitious atlas was to be based upon only the most up-to-date cartographic information available. Schraembl pulled his maps from the work of explorers such as Cook, Roberts, and others. The atlas was finally finished in 1800 but, possibly restricted by its high production cost, enjoyed only relatively minimal circulation.

• Title : Carte de L Asie, Divisee En Ses Differents Empires et Royaumes Avec...Dressee par J B Nolin...1830
• Ref #:  93437
• Size: 31in x 22in (790mm x 560mm)
• Date : 1780 (1830)
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This large original hand coloured copper-plate engraved antique map of Asia was engraved and published by Pierre Jean, of the Parisian publishing company Mondhare and Jean in 1830, after the 18th century French cartographer Jean Baptiste Clouet and not Jean Baptiste Nolin jr as noted in the title.
This map is also incredibly rare and I have been unable to find another example sold in the last 25 years.

Since acquiring this large original map, it has been somewhat of an enigma. It is dated 1830 but bears the name of the cartographer J B Nolin, who died in 1790. It was engraved and published by Pierre Jean. But the map bears no cartographical resemblance to any large maps of Asia by Nolin and is also too large to fit into any atlas by Nolin or published by Pierre Jean. This clue finally gave us the answer. The Mondhare and Jean engraving & publishing company were responsible for engraving and printing Jean Baptiste Nolins large world & continental wall maps. And at the same time they were also responsible for the engraving & publishing a series of Wall maps of the world & continents by J B Clouet at the end of the 18th century. These maps are somewhat similar in decoration but are very different in cartographical detail as you can see in the two image comparisons above. This map was published a year after the death of Pierre Jean and we possibly never know it was a mistake or intentional.

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: - 31in x 22in (790mm x 560mm)
Plate size: - 29 1/2in x 21in (750mm x 535mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Very small rust hole in Siberia
Verso: - Bottom centerfold rejoined, no loss

Background:
Cartographically the only apparent difference between this map by Jean and the map by Clouet is the updated cartographical data in the inset map of the Bering Straits and the updated information by the surveying by Captain James Cook and others after the 1780s.

Jean Baptiste Clouet 1729 - 1790 Clouet was a French cartographer and geographer born in Rennes, France. He kept premises in both Paris & Cadiz, Spain and was named Royal Geographer of the Academie des Sciences de Rouen in 1785. One of his main works was Géographie Moderne first issued 1767. In 1788 he was responsible for the design of 5 World & Continental wall maps, engraved and printed by the famous Paris publishers Mondhare & Jean.

Jean Baptiste Nolin Jr 1686–1762, son of JB Nolin 1657 - 1708 carried on publishing his fathers stock after his death, contracting the printing to third party publishing companies.

Mondhare & Jean (active 1759 - 1829)
Louis-Joseph Mondhare (1734 - Paris 1799) & Pierre Jean (1754 - 1829) were prominent Parisian publishers, engravers, print and map sellers who were active in Paris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
In 1784 Jean married the daughter of Mondhare, who formed a partnership with his son in law, changing forming a very successful partnership thereafter as Mondhare & Jean.
After Mondhare retirement in 1796, Jean carried on with the publishing & printing business, having inherited all of the printing plates that also included many map plates from the likes of Nolin, Clouet, D Anville , Delsile and others. Both Mondhare and Jean were responsible for the engraving and printing of the very decorative large wall maps by J B Nolin & J B L Clouet, as well as single plate maps and atlases. Mondares premises were located at Rue St Jacques, à lHôtel Saumur later moving with Jean to 32 Rue Saint-Jean de Beauvais.

• Title : Dendrolagus Inustus, Mull....H C Richter del et lith....C Hullmandel Imp.
• Ref #:  93442
• Size: 22in x 15in (560mm x 385mm)
• Date : 1845–63
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This large rare original hand coloured lithograph antique print of The Grizzled Tree Kangaroo, by the artist HC Richter was printed by Charles Joseph Hullmandel 1789 – 1850 in the famous Naturalists John Goulds The Mammals of Australiapublished between 1845–63.

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: - 22in x 15in (560mm x 385mm)
Plate size: - 22in x 15in (560mm x 385mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background:
The Mammals of Australia is a three-volume work written and published by John Gould between 1845–63. It contains 182 illustrations by the author and its artist H. C. Richter. It was intended to be a complete survey of the novel species of mammals, such as the marsupials, discovered in the colonies of Australia.
The author, John Gould, best known for The Birds of Australia and other major works of ornithology, visited Australia in 1838. In his introduction, Gould says:.....It was not until I arrived in the country, and found myself surrounded by objects as strange as if I had been transported to another planet, that I conceived the idea of devoting a portion of my attention to the mammalian class of its extraordinary fauna......During his short stay he made observations on the natural history and employed his skills as a taxidermist to obtain specimens.
The publication of this major work by Gould followed his A Monograph of the Macropodidae or Family of Kangaroos in 1841. This work was the first comprehensive survey of Australian mammals, and gave an account of their classification and description. Gould also included the indigenous names for the species from the lists he made while in Australia. He used these names to make requests of the local peoples for his specimens, and recorded the regions where the names were used. This conserved a number of common names, such as dibbler (Parantechinus apicalis), which were later recommended by authorities.
The large lithographs reproduced the artwork of Richter, after the drawings and watercolours made in Australia by Gould and his wife, Elizabeth. (The contribution by Elizabeth Gould was uncredited). These were hand-coloured by a group of artists, led by Gabriel Bayfield, that required the completion of 26,572 plates. The illustrations produced during their visit to Australia were supplemented by the preserved specimens returned to England and detailed the characteristics of the species. These illustrations have become iconic images of the mammals of Australia. Among the best known of the illustrations from the work are the two of Thylacinus cynocephalus (Tasmanian tiger), copied since its publication and the most frequently reproduced, made more recognizable by Cascade Brewerys appropriation for its label in 1987. The government of Tasmania published a monochromatic reproduction of the same image in 1934, the author Louisa Anne Meredith also copied it for Tasmanian Friends and Foes (1881).
The Mammals of Australia was published by subscription in the format Imperial Folio; 13 parts in three volumes were issued from 1845 until 1863. To these the author added An Introduction to The Mammals of Australia (1863) in a separate work. This provided corrections and updates, a new preface, introduction, and a list of the mammals of the three volumes. The first two volumes were complete surveys of orders Marsupiata (marsupials), and, with Rodentia in the third, it formed the sum of known mammalian species of Australia. With the addition of those contained in the later Introduction the total of species described reached 166. The same work notes the exclusion of marine mammals such as whales from the volumes, but reprints a manuscript by Charles Coxen on the dugong.
Beyond the scientific value of this comprehensive survey, the document is cited in reference to its subjects conservation. Some of the species included in the work, such as Onychogalea lunata (crescent nailtail wallaby), have since succumbed to changes in land use since European colonisation.
The work was received with acclaim, but the high cost of production, especially of the coloured plates, reduced its accessibility. The original listed price was £41 for the complete set of volumes. The public curiosity for the unique fauna of Australia was met by this handsomely illustrated and comprehensive survey, and it spawned imitations in Australia. The curator of the Australian Museum, Gerard Krefft, produced the more affordable The Mammals of Australia (1871); intended for educational purposes and influenced by Goulds illustrations. Gracius Broinowskis abandoned work, Birds and Mammals of Australia (1884), so closely imitated the plates that an injunction was threatened by its publisher.

Gould, John FRS 1804 – 1881
Gould was an English ornithologist and bird artist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates that he produced with the assistance of his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists including Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Matthew Hart. He has been considered the father of bird study in Australia and the Gould League in Australia is named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed Darwins finches played a role in the inception of Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection. Goulds work is referenced in Charles Darwins book, On the Origin of Species.
Gould was born in Lyme Regis the first son of a gardener. He and the boy probably had a scanty education. Shortly afterwards his father obtained a position on an estate near Guildford, Surrey, and then in 1818 Gould became foreman in the Royal Gardens of Windsor. He was for some time under the care of J. T. Aiton, of the Royal Gardens of Windsor. The young Gould started training as a gardener, being employed under his father at Windsor from 1818 to 1824, and he was subsequently a gardener at Ripley Castle in Yorkshire. He became an expert in the art of taxidermy. In 1824 he set himself up in business in London as a taxidermist, and his skill helped him to become the first Curator and Preserver at the museum of the Zoological Society of London in 1827.
Goulds position brought him into contact with the countrys leading naturalists. This meant that he was often the first to see new collections of birds given to the Zoological Society of London. In 1830 a collection of birds arrived from the Himalayas, many not previously described. Gould published these birds in A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1830–1832). The text was by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and the illustrations were drawn and lithographed by Goulds wife Elizabeth Coxen Gould. Most of Goulds work were rough sketches on paper from which other artists created the lithographic plates.
This work was followed by four more in the next seven years, including Birds of Europe in five volumes. It was completed in 1837; Gould wrote the text, and his clerk, Edwin Prince, did the editing. The plates were drawn and lithographed by Elizabeth Coxen Gould. A few of the illustrations were made by Edward Lear as part of his Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae in 1832. Lear, however, was in financial difficulty, and he sold the entire set of lithographs to Gould. The books were published in a very large size, imperial folio, with magnificent coloured plates. Eventually 41 of these volumes were published, with about 3000 plates. They appeared in parts at £3 3s. a number, subscribed for in advance, and in spite of the heavy expense of preparing the plates, Gould succeeded in making his ventures pay, realising a fortune. This was a busy period for Gould who also published Icones Avium in two parts containing 18 leaves of bird studies on 54 cm plates as a supplement to his previous works. No further monographs were published as in 1838 he and his wife moved to Australia to work on the Birds of Australia. Shortly after their return to England, his wife died in 1841. Elizabeth Gould completed 84 plates for Birds of Australia before her death.
When Charles Darwin presented his mammal and bird specimens collected during the second voyage of HMS Beagle to the Zoological Society of London on 4 January 1837, the bird specimens were given to Gould for identification. He set aside his paying work and at the next meeting on 10 January reported that birds from the Galápagos Islands which Darwin had thought were blackbirds, gross-bills and finches were in fact a series of ground Finches which are so peculiar as to form an entirely new group, containing 12 species. This story made the newspapers. In March, Darwin met Gould again, learning that his Galápagos wren was another species of finch and the mockingbirds he had labelled by island were separate species rather than just varieties, with relatives on the South American mainland. Subsequently, Gould advised that the smaller southern Rhea specimen that had been rescued from a Christmas dinner was a separate species which he named Rhea darwinii, whose territory overlapped with the northern rheas. Darwin had not bothered to label his finches by island, but others on the expedition had taken more care. He now sought specimens collected by captain Robert FitzRoy and crewmen. From them he was able to establish that the species were unique to islands, an important step on the inception of his theory of evolution by natural selection. Goulds work on the birds was published between 1838 and 1842 in five numbers as Part 3 of Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, edited by Charles Darwin. Elizabeth Gould illustrated all the plates for Part 3.
In 1838 the Goulds sailed to Australia, intending to study the birds of that country and be the first to produce a major work on the subject. They took with them the collector John Gilbert. They arrived in Tasmania in September, making the acquaintance of the governor Sir John Franklin and his wife. Gould and Gilbert collected on the island. In February 1839 Gould sailed to Sydney, leaving his pregnant wife with the Franklins. He travelled to his brother-in-laws station at Yarrundi, spending his time searching for bowerbirds in the Liverpool Range. In April he returned to Tasmania for the birth of his son. In May he sailed to Adelaide to meet Charles Sturt, who was preparing to lead an expedition to the Murray River. Gould collected in the Mount Lofty range, the Murray Scrubs and Kangaroo Island, returning again to Hobart in July. He then travelled with his wife to Yarrundi. They returned home to England in May 1840.
The result of the trip was The Birds of Australia (1840–48). It included a total of 600 plates in seven volumes; 328 of the species described were new to science and named by Gould. He also published A Monograph of the Macropodidae, or Family of Kangaroos (1841–1842) and the three volume work The Mammals of Australia (1849–1861).
Elizabeth died in 1841 after the birth of their eighth child, Sarah, and Goulds books subsequently used illustrations by a number of artists, including Henry Constantine Richter, William Matthew Hart and Joseph Wolf.
Throughout his professional life Gould had a strong interest in hummingbirds. He accumulated a collection of 320 species, which he exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Despite his interest, Gould had never seen a live hummingbird. In May 1857 he travelled to the United States with his second son, Charles. He arrived in New York too early in the season to see hummingbirds in that city, but on 21 May 1857, in Bartrams Gardens in Philadelphia, he finally saw his first live one, a ruby-throated hummingbird. He then continued to Washington D.C. where he saw large numbers in the gardens of the Capitol. Gould attempted to return to England with live specimens, but, as he was not aware of the conditions necessary to keep them, they only lived for two months at most.
Gould published: A Monograph of the Trochilidae or Humming Birds with 360 plates (1849–61); The Mammals of Australia (1845–63), Handbook to the Birds of Australia (1865), The Birds of Asia (1850–83), The Birds of Great Britain (1862–73) and The Birds of New Guinea and the adjacent Papuan Islands (1875–88).
The University of Glasgow, which owns a copy of Birds of Great Britain, describes John Gould as the greatest figure in bird illustration after Audubon, and auctioneers Sotherans describe the work as Goulds pride and joy.
Gould had already published some of the illustrations in Birds of Europe, but Birds of Great Britain represents a development of his aesthetic style in which he adds illustrations of nests and young on a large scale.
Sotherans Co. reports that Gould published the book himself, producing 750 copies, which remain sought after both as complete volumes, and as individual plates, currently varying in price from £450 – £850. The University of Glasgow records that the volumes were issued in London in 25 parts, to make the complete set, between 1863 and 1873, and each set contained 367 coloured lithographs.
Gould undertook an ornithological tour of Scandinavia in 1856, in preparation for the work, taking with him the artist Henry Wolf who drew 57 of the plates from Goulds preparatory sketches. According to The University of Glasgow Goulds skill was in rapidly producing rough sketches from nature (a majority of the sketches were drawn from newly killed specimens) capturing the distinctiveness of each species. Gould then oversaw the process whereby his artists worked his sketches up into the finished drawings, which were made into coloured lithographs by engraver William Hart.
There were problems: the stone engraving of the snowy owl in volume I was dropped and broken at an early stage in the printing. Later issues of this plate show evidence of this damage and consequently the early issue – printed before the accident – are considered more desirable.
The lithographs were hand coloured. In the introduction for the work, Gould states every sky with its varied tints and every feather of each bird were coloured by hand; and when it is considered that nearly two hundred and eighty thousand illustrations in the present work have been so treated, it will most likely cause some astonishment to those who give the subject a thought.
The work has gathered critical acclaim: according to Mullens and Swann, Birds of Great Britain is the most sumptuous and costly of British bird books, whilst Wood describes it as a magnificent work. Isabella Tree writes that it was seen – perhaps partly because its subject was British, as the culmination of [his] ... genius

• Title : New Zealand by A K Johnston
• Date : 1856
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
• Ref:  93438
• Size: 25in x 21 1/2in (635mm x 545mm)

Description:
This original large hand coloured steel plate engraved antique map of New Zealand was published by A K Johnston in the 1856 edition of his National atlas of historical, commercial, and political geography.

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: - 25in x 21 1/2in (635mm x 545mm)
Plate size: - 25in x 21 1/2in (635mm x 545mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light spotting
Plate area: - Light spotting
Verso: - Light spotting

Background:
The first printed chart of New Zealand.
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 Tasmans 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 Admiraltys 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.
Cooks 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 Cooks 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 Endeavours 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 Cooks 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 Endeavours 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.

The chart and its publication
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 Cooks second voyage, and was related to Cooks 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, Hawkes Bay, and most intriguingly, Cape Kidnappers (a point on the North Island where Maori warriors attempted to abduct a member of the Endeavors crew).
There are a few errors, conspicuous only because of the otherwise superb accuracy of the chart. Notably, Cooks Bankes 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 Cooks 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, Cooks 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 Cooks very finest maps, and one of the truly great achievements of Enlightenment cartography.

• Title : Plan de la Ville De Boston et ses Environs
• Ref #:  93417
• Size: 14 1/2in x 9 1/2in (350mm x 240mm)
• Date : 1756
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This original hand coloured copper plate engraved antique map of Boston and surrounding areas - one of the earliest obtainable maps of the city - by Jacques Nicholas Bellin in 1756 - was published in the French edition of Antoine-François Prevosts 20 volume L Histoire Generale des Voyages published by Pierre de Hondt in the Hague between 1747 & 1785.

Beautiful map with great street and building detail in both Boston and Charlestown, showing parts of Ronde Isle and the mainland. Important buildings and areas identified in an idex at the left of the map. Including three cannon batteries, the Presbyterian Church, the Quaker temple, the Anabaptist Church, the City Hall, the Armory, Faneuil Hall (Spelled Fanal), etc. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)

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: - 14 1/2in x 9 1/2in (350mm x 240mm)
Plate size: - 11 1/2in x 7 1/2in (285mm x 190mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Folds as issued
Verso: - None

Background:
Boston is the capital city and most populous municipality of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States.
Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States, founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U.S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education and culture.
In the 1820s, Boston\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s population grew rapidly, and the city\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s ethnic composition changed dramatically with the first wave of European immigrants. Irish immigrants dominated the first wave of newcomers during this period, especially following the Irish Potato Famine; by 1850, about 35,000 Irish lived in Boston. In the latter half of the 19th century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans, Lebanese, Syrians, French Canadians, and Russian and Polish Jews settling in the city. By the end of the 19th century, Boston\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s core neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants. Italians inhabited the North End, Irish dominated South Boston and Charlestown, and Russian Jews lived in the West End. Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them Roman Catholicism. Currently, Catholics make up Boston\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s largest religious community and the Irish have played a major role in Boston politics since the early 20th century; prominent figures include the Kennedys, Tip O\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'Neill, and John F. Fitzgerald.
Between 1631 and 1890, the city tripled its area through land reclamation by filling in marshes, mud flats, and gaps between wharves along the waterfront. The largest reclamation efforts took place during the 19th century; beginning in 1807, the crown of Beacon Hill was used to fill in a 50-acre mill pond that later became the Haymarket Square area. The present-day State House sits atop this lowered Beacon Hill. Reclamation projects in the middle of the century created significant parts of the South End, the West End, the Financial District, and Chinatown.
After the Great Boston Fire of 1872, workers used building rubble as landfill along the downtown waterfront. During the mid- to-late 19th century, workers filled almost 600 acres of brackish Charles River marshlands west of Boston Common with gravel brought by rail from the hills of Needham Heights. The city annexed the adjacent towns of South Boston (1804), East Boston (1836), Roxbury (1868), Dorchester (including present day Mattapan and a portion of South Boston) (1870), Brighton (including present day Allston) (1874), West Roxbury (including present day Jamaica Plain and Roslindale) (1874), Charlestown (1874), and Hyde Park (1912). Other proposals were unsuccessful for the annexation of Brookline, Cambridge and Chelsea.

• Title : A New and Exact Map of France Divided into all its Provinces...by H Moll Geographer
• Ref #:  93416
• Size: 40in x 24 1/2in (1.010m x 625mm)
• Date : 1720
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This very large beautifully hand coloured original copper-plate engraved antique map of France by Herman Moll was published in 1720 in the atlas The World Described, or a New and Correct Sett of Maps by John Bowles, Thomas Bowles, Philip Overton & John King of London.
In the 18th century many large-scale maps were published by the likes of John Senex and Herman Moll, this trend continued until the end of private mapping in the early 19th century when it was replaced by Ordnance Survey maps.

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: - 40in x 24 1/2in (1.010m x 625mm)
Plate size: - 39 1/2in x 24in (1.00m x 620mm)
Margins: - Min 1/8in (3mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Bottom margin cropped to plate mark
Plate area: - Folds as issued
Verso: - Folds as issued

Background:
The Carolingian dynasty ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of the Franks. His descendants—the Capetians, the House of Valois, and the House of Bourbon—progressively unified the country through wars and dynastic inheritance into the Kingdom of France, which was fully declared in 1190 by Philip II Augustus. The French nobility played a prominent role in most Crusades in order to restore Christian access to the Holy Land. French knights made up the bulk of the steady flow of reinforcements throughout the two-hundred-year span of the Crusades, in such a fashion that the Arabs uniformly referred to the crusaders as Franj caring little whether they really came from France. The French Crusaders also imported the French language into the Levant, making French the base of the lingua franca (litt. Frankish language) of the Crusader states. French knights also made up the majority in both the Hospital and the Temple orders. The latter, in particular, held numerous properties throughout France and by the 13th century were the principal bankers for the French crown, until Philip IV annihilated the order in 1307. The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical Cathars in the southwestern area of modern-day France. In the end, the Cathars were exterminated and the autonomous County of Toulouse was annexed into the crown lands of France. Later kings expanded their domain to cover over half of modern continental France, including most of the north, centre and west of France. Meanwhile, the royal authority became more and more assertive, centred on a hierarchically conceived society distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners.
From the 11th century, the House of Plantagenet, the rulers of the County of Anjou, succeeded in establishing its dominion over the surrounding provinces of Maine and Touraine, then progressively built an empire that spanned from England to the Pyrenees and covering half of modern France. Tensions between the kingdom of France and the Plantagenet empire would last a hundred years, until Philip Augustus of France conquered between 1202 and 1214 most of the continental possessions of the empire, leaving England and Aquitaine to the Plantagenets. Following the Battle of Bouvines, the Angevin court retreated to England, but persistent Capetian–Plantagenet rivalry would paved the way for another conflict.
Charles IV the Fair died without an heir in 1328. Under the rules of the Salic law the crown of France could not pass to a woman nor could the line of kingship pass through the female line. Accordingly, the crown passed to Philip of Valois, a cousin of Charles, rather than through the female line to Charles nephew, Edward of Plantagenet, who would soon become Edward III of England. During the reign of Philip of Valois, the French monarchy reached the height of its medieval power. Philips seat on the throne was contested by Edward III of England and in 1337, on the eve of the first wave of the Black Death, England and France went to war in what would become known as the Hundred Years War. The exact boundaries changed greatly with time, but French landholdings of the English Kings remained extensive for decades. With charismatic leaders, such as Joan of Arc and La Hire, strong French counterattacks won back English continental territories. Like the rest of Europe, France was struck by the Black Death; half of the 17 million population of France died.
The French Renaissance saw a spectacular cultural development and the first standardisation of the French language, which would become the official language of France and the language of Europes aristocracy. It also saw a long set of wars, known as the Italian Wars, between France and the House of Habsburg. French explorers, such as Jacques Cartier or Samuel de Champlain, claimed lands in the Americas for France, paving the way for the expansion of the First French colonial empire. The rise of Protestantism in Europe led France to a civil war known as the French Wars of Religion, where, in the most notorious incident, thousands of Huguenots were murdered in the St. Bartholomews Day massacre of 1572. The Wars of Religion were ended by Henry IVs Edict of Nantes, which granted some freedom of religion to the Huguenots. Spanish troops, the terror of Western Europe, assisted the Catholic side during the Wars of Religion in 1589–1594, and invaded northern France in 1597; after some skirmishing in the 1620s and 1630s, Spain and France returned to all-out war between 1635 and 1659. The war cost France 300,000 casualties.
Under Louis XIII, the energetic Cardinal Richelieu promoted the centralisation of the state and reinforced the royal power by disarming domestic power holders in the 1620s. He systematically destroyed castles of defiant lords and denounced the use of private violence (dueling, carrying weapons, and maintaining private army). By the end of 1620s, Richelieu established the royal monopoly of force as the doctrine. During Louis XIVs minority and the regency of Queen Anne and Cardinal Mazarin, a period of trouble known as the Fronde occurred in France. This rebellion was driven by the great feudal lords and sovereign courts as a reaction to the rise of royal absolute power in France.
The monarchy reached its peak during the 17th century and the reign of Louis XIV. By turning powerful feudal lords into courtiers at the Palace of Versailles, Louis XIVs personal power became unchallenged. Remembered for his numerous wars, he made France the leading European power. France became the most populous country in Europe and had tremendous influence over European politics, economy, and culture. French became the most-used language in diplomacy, science, literature and international affairs, and remained so until the 20th century. France obtained many overseas possessions in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Louis XIV also revoked the Edict of Nantes, forcing thousands of Huguenots into exile.
Under Louis XV, Louis XIVs great-grandson, France lost New France and most of its Indian possessions after its defeat in the Seven Years War (1756–63). Its European territory kept growing, however, with notable acquisitions such as Lorraine (1766) and Corsica (1770). An unpopular king, Louis XVs weak rule, his ill-advised financial, political and military decisions – as well as the debauchery of his court– discredited the monarchy, which arguably paved the way for the French Revolution 15 years after his death.
Louis XVI, Louis XVs grandson, actively supported the Americans, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain (realised in the Treaty of Paris (1783)). The financial crisis aggravated by Frances involvement in the American Revolutionary War was one of many contributing factors to the French Revolution. Much of the Enlightenment occurred in French intellectual circles, and major scientific breakthroughs and inventions, such as the discovery of oxygen (1778) and the first hot air balloon carrying passengers (1783), were achieved by French scientists. French explorers, such as Bougainville and Lapérouse, took part in the voyages of scientific exploration through maritime expeditions around the globe. The Enlightenment philosophy, in which reason is advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority, undermined the power of and support for the monarchy and helped pave the way for the French Revolution.

• 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.

• 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)

• Title : Topographica Repræsentatio Barbarici Portus et Urbis Munitæ Oran... Nuremberg, 1732 
• Ref #:  43187
• Size: 24 1/2in x 21 1/4in (620mm x 540mm)
• Date : 1735
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This large fine beautifully hand coloured original antique map and view of the City of Oran & Environs in the North African country of Algeria, as it was being captured by the Spanish in 1732, was published by Homann Heirs in ca 1735.

Background: Chart of the environs of Oran in Algeria, with a panorama of the city and environs, decorated with several sailing battle ships. In 1509 Spain captured Oran from the Moors, but in 1708, with Spain disadvantaged by the War of the Spanish Succession, they were driven out by the Turkish Bey, Mustapha Ben Youssef. In 1732 José Carrillo de Albornoz, 1st Duke of Montemar (1671-1747), recaptured Oran, causing this map to be published, after which the Spanish held the city until 1792. When the Spanish saw no point in keeping it, when it was handed over to the Bey of Algiers(Ref: 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, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 24 1/2in x 21 1/4in (620mm x 540mm) 
Plate size: - 22 1/2in x 19 1/2in (570mm x 500mm) 
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

• Title : 1799 James Wilson Antique Map of Duff or Wilson Islands, Santa Cruz Solomons Is.
• Date : 1799
• Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
• Ref:  90613
• Size:  16in x 10 1/2in (405mm x 255mm)

Description:
This copper-plate engraved original antique map of Duff or Wilson Islands located northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands in the Solomon Islands province of Temotu, in the South Pacific was engraved in by Thomas foot and was published in the 1799 edition Captain James Wilsons A missionary voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, performed in the years 1796, 1797, 1798, in the ship Duff commanded by Captain James Wilson.Compiled from journals of the officers and the missionaries. With a preliminary discourse on the geography and history of the South Sea Islands; and an appendix, including details never before published of the natural and civil state of Otaheite.

Captain James Wilson (1760–1814), commanded the British ship Duff, which the London Missionary Society contracted in 1797 to convey a team of missionaries (consisting of thirty men, six women, and three children) to their postings in Tahiti, Tonga, and the Marquesas Islands. During the voyage, Wilson also surveyed (or confirmed the locations of) numerous islands in the Pacific, including Vanua Balavu, Fulaga and Ogea Levu in Fiji, Mangareva in the Gambier Islands, Pukarua in the Tuamotus, and Satawal, Elato, and Lamotrek, in the Caroline Islands.
Three years after the establishment of the British mission in Tahiti, the directors of the Society appointed a committee to consider a suitable memorial for presentation to Wilson for his services in helping to establish the first mission in the South Seas.
He published an account of his voyage: A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean in 1799. (Ref: M&B; Tooley)

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - 
Colors used: - 
General color appearance: - 
Paper size: - 16in x 10 1/2in (405mm x 255mm)
Plate size: - 15in x 9 1/2in (380mm x 240mm)
Margins: - Min 1/4in (5mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light soling
Plate area: - Folds as issued
Verso: - Light soling

Background: 
The Duff Islands are a small island group lying to the northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands in the Solomon Islands province of Temotu. They are also sometimes known as the Wilson Islands.
The first recorded sighting by Europeans of the Duff Islands was by the Spanish expedition of Pedro Fernández de Quirós where it anchored on 8 April 1606. Its inhabitants named the islands as Taumako. They were charted by Quirós as Nuestra Señora del Socorro (Our Lady of Succour in Spanish).
The Duff Islands were named after missionary ship Duff, captained by James Wilson, which reached them in 1797.