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1635 Joan Blaeu Antique Map of Iceland - Joris Carolus

1635 Joan Blaeu Antique Map of Iceland - Joris Carolus

Description:
This large original antique map of Iceland, by Willem Blaeu, was engraved by Jodocus Hondius after Joris Carolus, and was published by Willem Blaeus son, Joan, in the 1635 French edition of Atlas Nouvs

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 19in (570mm x 485mm)
Plate size: - 20in x 15 1/4in (510mm x 395mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Original printers crease top left margin into border, uniform age toning
Plate area: - Uniform age toning
Verso: - Uniform age toning

Background:
This map of Iceland is perhaps the most familiar of all the outlines of the island ever published. The author is stated to be one Joris Carolus, a Dutch navigator from Enkhuizen, whose map was first engraved and prepared by Jodocus Hondius the younger in 1628, whose plates were bought by Willem Blaeu in 1629. Iceland bears the imprint of Willem Blaeu who issued it in his Appendix of 1630.
The Carolus map was copied by virtually all mapmakers throughout the rest of the 17th century and well into the 18th. Some of the information is derived from a map made famous by the Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius, the Islandia of Gudhbrandur Thorlaksson (1541 - 1627) Bishop of Holar, who had studied mathematics and astronomy as well as theology, while other information, such as place names, is derived from Gerard Mercator's map of 1595.
Willem Blaeu reprinted the map without change in his subsequent atlas editions, as did Joan after him, including the great atlas of 1662. In the southern southern part is shown the lively impression of Hekla in full eruption, described as mons perpetuo ardens while immediately to the west, the Bishopric of Skalholt is marked. To the south a note by Eiapialla hokel (Eyjafjallajokull) states that here may be found falcones albi or white falcons, presumably referring to the gyr falcon.

$1,250.00 USD
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1639 Hondius Antique Map of Bermuda

1639 Hondius Antique Map of Bermuda

  • Title : Mappa Aestivarum Insularum, alias Barmudas Dictarum ... Accurate Descripta
  • Date : 1639
  • Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
  • Ref:  43135
  • Size: 22 1/2in x 19 1/4in (570mm x 485mm)  

Description: 
This fine beautifully hand coloured original antique map of the Island of Bermuda was published in the 1639 French edition of Mercators Atlas by Henricus Hondius. A much sought after map of Bermuda, with decorative cartouche, compass rose with the Island divided into lots and tribes, listed at the base of the map.

Background:
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. Although discovered in 1515 by Spaniard Juan de Bermudez, after whom the island is supposedly named, it was the shipwreck of a party of Virginia colonists in 1610 led by Sir George Somers that gave Bermuda its first known inhabitants. The Latin title reflects this fact, for Aestivarum Insularum  means summers (or Somers) Islands. The experience of Somers and his men inspired William Shakespeare, who dispatched Ariel to "fetch dew from the still-vext Bermoothes" and populated the islands with the cast of The Tempest.

The place names and the list of Proprietors given below the map itself all recall the original members of the Bermuda Company, the latter being listed as eight tribes (or parishes). In 1610, the Virginia Company, in a True Declaration of the Estate of the Colonie of Virginia, said of Bermuda: These Islands of Bermudos, have evere beene accounted as an inchaunted pile of rocks, and a desert inhabitation for Divels; but all the Faities of the rockes were but flocks of Birds, and all the Divels that haunted the woods, were but heards of Swine. In the upper left-hand and right-hand corners of the map appear the adjacent coasts of the North American colonies of Virginia and New England with, just below the cartouche a tiny outline of Bermuda itself, intended to show its correct proportion and position against the mainland.(Ref Tooley M&B)

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: - 20 1/2in x 15 3/4in (520mm x 400mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - Light age toning
Verso: - Light age toning

$2,250.00 USD
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1638 Antique Map of Cyprus and 6 Greek Islands By Mercator-Hondius

1638 Antique Map of Cyprus and 6 Greek Islands By Mercator-Hondius

This beautifully hand coloured original  antique Map of Cyprus with below six inset maps of Greek islands: Stalimini, Chios, Mitilene, Negroponte, Cerigo, Rhodes, was published in the 1638 Latin edition of Mercators Atlas by Jan Jansson and Henricus Hondius. Decorative cartouche, sailing ship and sea monster. The map is borrowed from Ortelius' map of Cyprus and is one of the most sought after of all early maps of Cyprus.

These original maps, published in the later editions of Mercators atlas, are derived from the original maps drawn and engraved by Gerald Mercator in the mid to late 16th century, published by his son Rumold as an atlas, after his death, in 1595. After two editions the plates were purchased by Jodocus Hondius in 1604 and continued to be published until the mid 1630's when the plates were re-engraved and updated by Jan Jansson and Henricus Hondius. (Ref: Koeman; M&B)

Condition Report
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Red, yellow, green, orange, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22in x 16 3/4in (560mm x 425mm)
Plate size: - 19 1/2in x 14in (495mm x 355mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light creasing in margins
Plate area: - Light creasing
Verso: - Various weak creases on verso re-enforced with archival transparent tape

$975.00 USD
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1794 Laurie & Whittle Large Antique Map of Texas, New Mexico, Caribbean, Florida

1794 Laurie & Whittle Large Antique Map of Texas, New Mexico, Caribbean, Florida

  • Title : A New and Complete Map of the West Indies Comprehending all the Coasts and Islands Known by That Name" Laurie & Whittle...12th May 1794
  • Ref #: 50677
  • Size:  35in x 21in (890mm x 535mm)
  • Date : 1794
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This very large beautifully hand coloured original antique map of Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Mexico and the West Indians, Caribbean was published by Laurie & Whittle in 1794 - the date is engraved in the title cartouche.

This large, two-sheet, chart of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean and The Bahama's is based on the cartography of D'Anville. It shows the colonial possessions in the region with a color key below the title cartouche. The region is dominated by Spain with possessions including Florida and the formerly French Louisiana. The other colonies include, British, French, Dutch, Danish and the Swedish Mosquito Shore of Honduras. (Ref Tooley M&B)

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Pink, red, yellow, blue, orange
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 35in x 21in (890mm x 535mm)
Plate size: - 34 ½in x 19in (880mm x 485mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Light offsetting, folds as issued
Verso: - None

$1,250.00 USD
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1658 Visscher Large Antique Map of America

1658 Visscher Large Antique Map of America

  • Title : Novissima et Accuratissima Totius Americae Descriptio per N. Visscher
  • Ref #:  50683
  • Size: 24in x 20 1/4in (610mm x 515mm)
  • Date : 1658
  • Condition: (A) Very Good Condition

Description:
This large rare beautifully hand coloured original antique 1st edition map of America was published by Nicholas Visscher in ca 1658.

This is an important map, derived from Blaeu's earlier wall map, that would prove influential to many future maps of the western hemisphere, with similar maps issued by De Wit, Danckerts, Allard, and Ottens to the end of the 17th century.

Background:
Various dates have been attributed to this map from 1658 to 1680. The earliest date derives from its presence in the third volume of Jan Jansson's Novus Atlas dated 1658. However, it is not present in all examples and other maps have borne dates as late as 1680. The heirs of Jan Jansson who died in 1664, appear to have issued the volumes with old title pages on a continuous basis.
Although the map did not provide much in the way of cartographic advances after Blaeu, it had a large influence on future cartographers drawing upon either its geography or the distinctive cartouches. One of the most recognisable features is the large open lake in the place of the western Great Lakes. The single lake to its east most probably represents that of Ontario, but is named Lac Contenant. This like much of the map is derived from Joan Blaeu's wall map of the world, 1648. The use of Real de Nueva Mogulcorrectly placed on the east bank of the Rio del Norte is taken directly from Blaeu. One are where Visscher breaks from this is his depiction of the west coast. He uses an older model, that of Briggs, 1625 although with a broader north coast to California as an Island, a feature that was not found in any of Viscchers earlier works. He continues the mainland coastline north-north -east towards the Strait of Anian, which separates it from ANIAN.
The title is decorated with a scene showing the panning of gold or silver, with a native standing by under an umbrella. The cartouche top left bears a dedication to Cornelis Witsen, mayor of Amsterdam who financed many trips to the New World and depicts three angels helping a native Indian to heaven while the devil is fading away. (Burden; M&B; Tooley)

General Description:
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: - 24in x 20 1/4in (610mm x 515mm)
Plate size: - 21 1/2in x 17 1/4in (545mm x 440mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Uniform age toning
Plate area: - Uniform age toning, center-fold re-joined, no loss
Verso: - Uniform age toning, light spotting

$2,750.00 USD
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1639 Mercator Hondius Antique Map of Sri Lanka, India - Ceylon

1639 Mercator Hondius Antique Map of Sri Lanka, India - Ceylon

  • TitleIns. Ceilan quae incolis Tenarifin dicture
  • Date : 1639
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Ref:  43138
  • Size: 22 3/4in x 19 3/4in (580mm x 500mm)

Description:
This beautifully engraved hand coloured original antique map of the Island of Ceylon - Sri Lanka was published in the 1639 French edition of Mercator's atlas by Jansson and Hondius.
These maps, published in the later editions of Mercators atlas, are derived from the original maps drawn and engraved by Gerald Mercator in the mid to late 16th century, published by his son Rumold as an atlas, after his death, in 1595. After two editions the plates were purchased by Jodocus Hondius in 1604 andcontinued to be published until the mid 1630's when the plates were re-engraved and updated by Jan Jansson and Henricus Hondius.

Background: Maps of India & Ceylon, much distorted in shape, appear in most world atlases from the time of Ptolemy. The earliest usually showing India as a relatively small extension of Southern Asia, dominated by the very large island of Taprobana (Ceylon). In later sixteenth-century maps de Jode, Ortelius and Mercator gave a much improved outline of both lands but India was still shown too small in relation to the whole continent. Most publishers in the seventeenth century continued to issue maps but with little improvement in detail until about 1719 when a French Jesuit priest, Father Jean Bouchet, compiled an accurate map of South India, subsequently used by G. Delisle (1723), Homann Heirs (1735) and by J. B. B. d'Anville, then the French East India Company's cartographer, as the basis for his greatly improved maps in 1737 and 1752.
In the next decade Alexander Dalrymple published a collection of newly surveyed coastal charts and plans of ports and, about the same time, in 1764, James Rennell, a young British Army officer who showed a remarkable aptitude for surveying, was appointed - at the age of 21- Surveyor General of Bengal; he immediately set in motion a comprehensive survey of the Company's lands, subsequently publishing maps of Bengal and other provinces which eventually formed The &ngal Atlas (1779). His other works included a Map of Hindoustan (1782-85) and The Provinces of Delhi, Agra etc and the Indian Peninsula (1788-94). These maps by Reunell provided the basis for a Trigonometrical Survey of India which was initiated in 1802 and for splendid maps published in London by Cary, the Arrowsmiths (1804-22) and the Wylds.

Jodocus Hondius (1563 - 1612), one of the most notable engravers of his time, is known for his work in association with many of the cartographers and publishers prominent at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
In 1604 Hondius bought the plates of Mercator's Atlas which, in spite of its excellence, had not competed successfully with the continuing demand of the Ortelius Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. 
To meet this competition Hondius added about 40 maps to Mercator's original number and from 1606 published enlarged editions in many languages, still under Mercator's name but with his own name as publisher. These atlases have become known as the Mercator/Hondius series. The following year the maps were re-engraved in miniature form and issued as a pocket Atlas Minor. 
After the death of Jodocus Hondius the Elder in 1612, work on the two atlases, folio and miniature, was carried on by his widow and sons, Jodocus II and Henricus, and eventually in conjunction with Jan Jansson in Amsterdam. In all, from 1606 onwards, nearly 50 editions with increasing numbers of maps with texts in the main European languages were printed.(Ref: Koeman; M&B; Tooley)

Condition Report:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy & stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Yellow, pink, green
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 3/4in x 19 3/4in (580mm x 500mm)
Plate size: - 20in x 13 3/4in (500mm x 350mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

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

$1,250.00 USD
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1720 Homann, Doppelmayr & Eimmart Antique Twin Hemisphere Celestial Chart, Map. Planisphaerium Caeleste

1720 Homann, Doppelmayr & Eimmart Antique Twin Hemisphere Celestial Chart, Map. Planisphaerium Caeleste

Description:
This magnificent original hand coloured copper plate engraved antique double hemisphere celestial chart, showing constellations of the northern and southern hemispheres depicted as allegorical figures, animals and scientific instruments after Georg Christoph Eimmart (1638-1705) was published by Johann Baptist Homann and Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr (1677-1750) in ca 1720.

The stars are shown in six degrees of magnitude according to a key in the center between the hemispheres. The selection and style of the constellations followed that of Firmamentum Sociescianum sive Uranographia (1687) by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius, whose name is noted in the subtitle of the chart. The subtitle further indicates that the chart also draws on the work of Edmund Halley, the British astronomer for whom Halley’s Comet is named. There are numerous variants of this chart published in Germany in the 18th century; this example, Planispaerium Caeleste by Homann, bears the name of the firm (Officina Homanniana) under the border in the lower margin, together with the name of Georg Christoph Eimmart (1638-1705), the Nuremberg astronomer.

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 (635m x 545mm)
Plate size: - 23in x 19 1/2in (585mm x 495mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

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

Background:
The outer borders of the chart are decorated with six inset diagrams against a background of clouds including the planetary models of Tycho Brahe, Ptolemy, and Copernicus. The other 3 diagrams show the illumination of the moon by the sun, the revolution of the earth around the sun, and the effect of the moon on tides.
Various firms in Amsterdam, Nuremberg and Augsburg published double hemisphere constellation charts based on the work of George Eimmart titled Planispaerium Caeleste or Planisphaerium Coeleste during the first eight decades of the 18th century, which can be divided fundamentally into two different versions. The prolific Nuremberg publisher Johann Baptist Homann first published Planispaerium Caeleste in his Neuer Atlas in 1707, bearing the inscription Opera G.C. Eimmarti. prostat in Officina Homanniana, meaning Work of Georg Christoph Eimmart offered for sale by the Homann Workshop. That chart has six inset diagrams. Scholar Robert H. van Gent notes the existence of similar prints of this format published by de Wit, Funck, Schenck, and Lotter, as well as by R. & J. Ottens in Amsterdam. The other versions vary more considerably with the inclusion of a seventh inset diagram and a figural illustration in the upper center. These include ones published by Melchior Rein in Augsburg and by Georg Matthäus Seutter (1647–1756) in Nuremberg.
Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr and Johann Baptist Homann were frequent collaborators in producing celestial and astronomical charts for atlases published by Homann and issued under various titles. The major two compilations of Dopplemayr’s works were published by Homann Heirs: Atlas Coelestis in quo Mundus Spectabilis et in Eodem Stellarum Omnium Phoenomena Notabilia, issued as 30 plates in 1742, and the revised edition of this work Atlas Novus Coelestis, in quo Mundus Spectabilis, et in Eodem tam Errantium quam Inerrantium Stellarum Phoenomena Notabilia, issued in 1748 (with an additional plate depicting the solar eclipse of 1748).
Nonetheless, these charts have a complicated publishing history that is not fully known. Some of these charts had appeared in earlier Homann editions such as his first atlas, the Neuer Atlas (Nuremberg: 1707), Atlas von Hundert Charten (Nuremberg: 1712), Grossen Atlas (Nuremberg: 1716), and Atlas Portatilis Coelestis (Nuremberg: 1723). Homann also issued geographical maps in various atlases that may have included celestial plates (particularly composite atlases), and Homann and his heirs presumably sold separately issued maps. Further, three additional celestial and astronomy plates have been located in at least one Homann celestial compilation atlas (1742, 1748, or later), though not among the 30 maps of the standard issue of Atlas Coelestis in quo Mundus Spectabilis, namely Sphaerarum Artificialium Typica Repraesentatio (globes and armillary sphere), Neu invertirte Geographische Universal (clock), and Planisphaerium Caeleste (double hemisphere celestial chart).
Doppelmayr, a professor of mathematics at the Aegidien Gymnasium at Nuremberg, was an acclaimed German geographer and astronomer who wrote on astronomy, geography, cartography, trigonometry, sundials and mathematical instruments. He was also involved in the production of globes as part of a larger goal to bring the scientific ideas of the Enlightenment to a broader public. In service of that idea, Doppelmayr translated several works into German including Nicholas Bion’s 1699 work L’usage des globes célestes et terrestes, et des sphères [The Usage of Celestial and Terrestrial Globes and of Spheres]. Doppelmayr was elected to several scientific societies, including the Berlin Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society and the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.

$2,750.00 USD
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1588 Sebastian Munster Antique Map of Africa, Source of Nile & Cannibals

1588 Sebastian Munster Antique Map of Africa, Source of Nile & Cannibals

  • Title : Africa Mit Seinen Besondern Lanendern, Thieren und Wunderbarlichen Dingen (Africa with its special countries, animals, and wonderful things)
  • Size: 13 1/2in x 8 1/2in (345mm x 230mm)
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Date : 1588
  • Ref #:  17058

Description:
This original wood-block engraved antique map of Africa, to text, by Sebastian Munster was published by Sebastian Petri in the 1588 edition of Cosmographia.
Most editions of Munster Cosmographia contained a small woodcut map of Africa as a text illustration. It excludes the Horn of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, but Mons Lunae origina of the Nile appears, with many kingdoms Central and North Africa. Additional text and woodcuts appear on the verso of a battle and cannibal.

The Cosmographia or Cosmography was first published in 1544 and is the earliest German-language description of the world.
It had numerous editions in different languages including Latin, French (translated by François de Belleforest), Italian, English, and Czech. The last German edition was published in 1628. The Cosmographia was one of the most successful and popular books of the 16th century and passed through 24 editions in 100 years. This success was due to the notable woodcuts (some by Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch, and David Kandel). It was most important in reviving geography in 16th-century Europe. Among the notable maps within Cosmographia is the map Die Newe Welt oder Inseln, which is credited as the first map to show the American continents as geographically unique.
Munsters earlier geographic works were Germania descriptio (1530) and Mappa Europae (1536). In 1540, he published a Latin edition of Ptolemy\\\'s Geographia, with numerous illustrations.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 13 1/2in x 8 1/2in (345mm x 230mm)
Plate size: - 6in x 5in (150mm x 130mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - Light age toning
Verso: - Light age toning

Background: 
The first separately printed map of Africa (as with the other known continents) appeared in Munsters 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. dAnville (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, (Ref: Norwich; Tooley)

$275.00 USD
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1627 John Speed Antique Map of Greater London, Middlesex with Birds Eye Views

1627 John Speed Antique Map of Greater London, Middlesex with Birds Eye Views

  • Title :Midle-sex Described with the most Famous Cities of London and Westminster
  • Ref #:  17053
  • Size: 20 1/2in x 16 1/4in (520mm x 410mm)
  • Date : 17053
  • Condition: (A) Very Good Condition

Description:
This original hand coloured antique map & views of London and the English county of Middlesex by John Speed was published in the 1627 edition of Speeds famous atlas The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine.
The map is embellished with the famous birds-eye views of London, Westminster and the churches of St Peters (Westminster Abbey) and old St Pauls before the great fire of London in 1666. English descriptive text of London on the verso.

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: - 20 1/2in x 16 1/4in (520mm x 410mm)
Plate size: - 20 1/2in x 16 1/4in (520mm x 410mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - L&R margins re-enforced by strips on verso
Plate area: - Light soiling
Verso: - Light toning

Background:
This county map of Middlesex, now greater London, illustrates the market towns of Enfield, Pancras, Osterley and Staines. The map is dominated by four large vignettes with the environs of London and the county situated in the central portion of the map. The actual cartography is based on the surveys performed by John Norden, the earlier English antiquary and map maker, who unsuccessfully attempted to publish an updated county atlas of the United Kingdom before Speed. Norden also lived most of his life in Middlesex, thus becoming an obvious source for the map.
The City of London is clearly shown on the lower right of the map with villages such as Hamsted, Pancras, Kensington and Paddington marked around the city. To the lower centre of the map is an acknowledgement to the original survey by Norden, augmented by Speed himself.
Although the cartography is of some note, it is the vignettes for which this map is justly famous. To the two bottom corners are the famous Churchs of St. Peter (Westminster Abbey) Westminster on the left and St. Pauls to the right. This is the medieval Cathedral of St. Pauls, just after it had lost its spire in 1561 and before the Great Fire of 1666, in which it was destroyed then rebuilt in its present form by Sir Christopher Wren. Above these two church vignettes are two text panels in the form of books, the one on the left describing the two churches and the other on the right with a description of London itself.
Finally, two large vignettes on the upper left and right corners depict the two cities of Westminster and London respectively. It is believed that Speed was not responsible for either of these images, more likely drawing from Norden, although there are no surviving evidence of this, to date yet to be found. There are also theories that these two views may have come from either a German sources or other lost birds-eye views of London by unknown persons.
Due to modern growth of London and border changes, the county of Middlesex no longer exists, but there is little doubt this is the most the best map of London and Middlesex published in the 17th century. English text on versoJohn Speed

$1,499.00 USD
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1756 Mount & Page Large Maritime Map of Oslofjord - Oslo to Fredrikstad Norway

1756 Mount & Page Large Maritime Map of Oslofjord - Oslo to Fredrikstad Norway

  • Title : A New and Exact Map of Part of the Coast of Norway beginning at Long Sound wth. the East & N E Coast thereof; also the Soen Water Dram and Christiana Rivers ..., printed for Benyan Crowe
  • Ref #:  17033
  • Size: 41 1/2in x 24 1/4in (1.045m x 615mm)
  • Date : 1756
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This very large original hand coloured copper-plate engraved antique Maritime map or chart of the Oslofjord body of water stretching from Oslo to Fredrikstad, Norway was published in by Mount and Page in the 1756 edition of The English pilot : Describing the sea-coasts, capes, headlands, soundings, sands, shoals, rocks and dangers : the bays, roads, harbours, rivers and ports in the whole northern navigation.... Specifically from the Second Part of the Atlas series on Northern Navigation containing 31 large folding maps engraved by Francis Lamb and Herman Moll.

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: - 41 1/2in x 24 1/4in (1.045m x 615mm)
Plate size: - 35in x 23 1/4in (990mm x 590mm)
Margins: - Min 1/4in (5mm)

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

Background:
The English Pilot 1698 - 1803, was the first major sea-atlas produced in England and in its final form it consisted of five separate books, with the Fourth Book the first wholly English sea-atlas of American waters. Although the idea of the atlases originated with John Seller, he was involved in producing only the first two books. William Fisher and John Thornton produced The Fourth Book in 1689, and their successors Mount and Page continued to print it for over 100 years … Sellers proposal for a Sea Waggoner resulted in the production of The English Pilot, which consisted of five separate volumes with a common generic title. Book One included the southern navigation and Book Two the northern. Book Three was concerned with the Orient, Book Four with America, and Book Five contained Africa. Each book or volume has its own independent publishing history and appeared in numerous editions. The five separate books constitute a set only by virtue of the general title, and under that title The English Pilot is the first great sea-atlas produced in England. Of the five books, the fourth has the longest publication history and is the best known.

Mount & Page 1701 - 1790
Mount & Page was a firm of religious and maritime publishers that flourished in the eighteenth century. The name became well-known worldwide as an imprint of nautical charts.
The firm was founded in 1701 by Richard Mount (1654–1722) and Thomas Page (active 1700-1733). Mount had previously been in partnership with his father-in-law William Fisher (1631–1692) and inherited the business on the latter's death. As Mount & Page the firm flourished throughout the 18th century and made the fortunes of both families, helped by government contracts. Successive generations of Mounts and Pages worked in the business, and the families intermarried. One of its staple titles was Navigatio Britannica by John Barrow, published in 1750 and still being advertised in 1787.
By the 1760s, Richard Mount's grandson John Mount (1725–1786) was able to retire to Berkshire where he built Wasing Place. John's son William (1753–1815) was the last to work in the business, and later generations went into politics.

$1,250.00 USD
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1632 Jacobus Tirinus Large Antique Map of The Holy Land, Palestine, XII Tribes

1632 Jacobus Tirinus Large Antique Map of The Holy Land, Palestine, XII Tribes

  • Title : Chorographia Terrae Sanctae in angustiorem Formam Redacta, et ex variis auctoribus a multis errorbus expurgata
  • Ref #:  17009
  • Size: 40in x 19in (1060m x 395mm)
  • Date : 1632
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This large magnificent, hand coloured original copper plate engraved antique map of the Holy Land by Johann Belling & Augustus Vindel was published in Commentarius in Sacram Scripturam (Commentary on the New and Old Testament) by the Belgian Jesuit monk Jacobus Tirinus.
This is without doubt one of the most visually stunning maps of the Holy land ever published and there have been many elaborated & beautiful maps of this important region published since the dark ages, when the Holy Land was considered the geographical center of the world.
This map was originally prepared in 1632 for Tirinus study of the Holy Land and was originally engraved by Cornelius Galle and printed in Antwerp by Martinus Nutius. Tirinuss work went through many editions and printings up until the mid 18th century.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Blue, pink, red, green, yellow
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 40in x 19in (1060m x 395mm)
Plate size: - 32 1/2in x 13in (825mm x 330mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

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

Background:
Oriented to the East the map is surrounded with panels of vignettes displaying sacred objects including a menorah, the arc of the covenant, the altar of sacrifices, the Tabernacle, and a plan and elevations of the Temple. At center is an inset bird\\\'s-eye plan of ancient Jerusalem based on the Spanish biblical geographer, Juan Bautista Vilalpando. Oriented with east at top, the map includes the territories of the twelve tribes on both sides of the Jordan River and the route of the Exodus and Wandering. The map depicts from Syria and Tyre southward as far as the Sinai, Egypt and Thebes. At the southern most point, in Egypt, is located the city of Thebes and, slightly to the north, near Memphis, the wildly misshapen Pyramids of Egypt. Slightly further north is the city of Tanis, possible resting place for the Ark of the Covenant. In this spirit, slightly to the south of Tanis, the city of Ramesse is indicated as the starting point of the Biblical Exodus and the wandering of the Hebrews. Following their path into the desert and across the Red Sea – where Pharaoh is shown being inundated by the returning waters following Moses’ parting of the Red Sea. Now in the Sinai, we can follow the footsteps of the Hebrews to Mount Sinai (Sinai Mons), where Moses is drawn throwing down the tablets of God. Slightly to the northwest of this location a cleft in the mountains reveals the location of the ancient Nabatean city of Petra. With regard to Petra, the location and gorge detail is surprisingly accurate considering that it was only “discovered” by the Swiss adventurer Johannes L. Burckhardt, in 1812, 200 years after this map was drawn. Heading northward the lands claimed by the various tribes of Israel are beautifully detailed along with major cities, camps, roads, and trade routes. The Mediterranean is decorated with sailing ships and, in the lower left quadrant, a surveying tool between two censors. Surrounding the map proper on the left, right, and bottom margins, there are 19 maps and images of Biblical objects. The largest and most central of these is a stunning inset of Jerusalem, which notes the various temples and important buildings located there. Other images include the Arc of the Covenant, Israelite coins, Roman antiquities, views of a Menorah, various angels, and a plan of the Temple. All in all an extraordinary piece, one of the most attractive maps of the Holy Land ever made.

Tirinus, Jacobus 1580 - 1636
Or Jacobi Tirini was a Jesuit monk, theologian, historian, and Biblical scholar. His major work is the Commentarius in Sacram Scripturam a two volume Bible commentary. Tirini was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1580. Following his admission into the Jesuit Order, Tirini became a respected Biblical scholar and a prominent member of the Order. He was assigned First Superior to the Antwerp Jesuit House as well as Directior of the Holland Mission. Tirinis Biblial commentaries are still referenced today.(Ref: Laor; M&B; Tooley)

$1,499.00 USD
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1541 Laurent Fries Very Early, Rare Antique Map of Switzerland

1541 Laurent Fries Very Early, Rare Antique Map of Switzerland

Description:
This rare, very early original hand coloured wood-block engraved antique Ptolemaic map of Switzerland by Laurent Fries was published by Trechsel, Gaspar; Vienne, Dauphine in the 1541 Lyon edition of Ptolemys Geographia, Claudii Ptolemaei Alexandrini Geographicae Enarrationis, Libri Octo

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Yellow, orange
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 18 1/2in x 15in (475mm x 380mm)
Plate size: - 18 1/2in x 15in (475mm x 380mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Small repair to top margin in title
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background:
The first printed map of Switzerland was published in Martin Waldseemuller's edition of Ptolemy in Strasbourg in 1513, but the manuscript map by Konrad Turst (1497) drawn to scale was a splendid first achievement for its time. Also the research of Vadianus at St Gallen University produced notable work, and along with the Germanic influence in Basle, which became part of the Swiss Confederation in 1501, and the highly developed wood engraving skills there, were important factors in European map publishing.
The almost endless editions of Sebastian Munster's Cosmographia were published in Basle from 1540 for nearly a century and Zurich can claim to have published the first national atlas produced anywhere -that of Johann Stumpf in 1548-52.
By comparison with her larger neighbours, Germany and Italy, Switzerland is considered not to have made a major contribution to Cartographic history. But over the years this has been contradicted, especially starting in the sixteenth century. In the second half of the sixteenth century many maps of the Swiss Cantons, in manuscript or woodcuts appeared, but the mountainous nature of the country produced its own mapping problems and imposed a need for large-scale surveys as well as practical and effective methods of showing land surfaces in relief. Early in the seventeenth century Hans Gyger perfected new ways of doing this but although he published a wide range of very large-scale maps of the cantons and of Switzerland as a whole his techniques did not receive the credit they deserved. On the other hand, his countrymen followed his example of compiling large-scale maps for which they have always been noted for up until the present day. (Ref: Koeman; M&B)

$850.00 USD
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1764 Bellin Antique Map - Plan of The City of New Orleans, Louisiana, North America

1764 Bellin Antique Map - Plan of The City of New Orleans, Louisiana, North America

Description: 
This original beautifully hand coloured rare antique map, an early plan of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana by Jacques Nicolas Bellin, in 1764 was published in Antoine-François Prevosts 20 volume L`Histoire Generale des Voyages published by Pierre de Hondt in the Hague between 1747 & 1785.

General Description:
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: - 14 1/2in x 10in (360mm x 255mm)
Plate size: - 11in x 8in (280mm x 205mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

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

Background: This scarce 1764 map by Bellin is one of the earliest obtainable maps of New Orleans. Oriented to the east, Bellin's map covers the original settlement of New Orleans along the Mississippi River and inland as far theFosse plein d'eau (roughly translated: 'Pit full of Water') near modern day Dauphine Street, and from modern day Iberville Street (shown but not named) to modern day Barracks Street (shown but not named). The map shows some 100 buildings with some 18 specifically identified via an alphabetically coded table set just above the map.
Among the locations noted in the key is one that provides an eerie echo of the slave trade. Item Q is identified as Cabanes des Negroes qui prennent soin Moulin or 'Cabins of Negros that care for mill.' Note how these cabins, as well as the adjacent mill, are both well outside the ordered structure of the city as well as conveniently located near the Corps de Garde des Bourgeois

Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles  1697 - 1763, usually known simply as the Abbé Prévost, was a French author and novelist. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)

 

$650.00 USD
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1715 William Dampier Antique Twin Hemisphere World Map, California Is. Australia

1715 William Dampier Antique Twin Hemisphere World Map, California Is. Australia

Description: 
This beautiful copper-plate engraved scarce, original antique Twin Hemisphere World Map by William Dampier was published in the 1715 French edition of A New Voyage Around the World (Nouveau Voyage autour du Monde)
Fantastic map showing the route taken by Dampier on his first voyage in his ship Roebuck, visiting NW Australia, GOM and Southern Africa whilst circumnavigating the world. California is shown as an island as was the popular belief at the time.

Background: William Dampier (1651 - 1715) was an English explorer and navigator who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnavigate the world three times. He has also been described as Australia's first natural historian, as well as one of the most important British explorers of the period between Sir Walter Raleigh and James Cook.
After impressing the Admiralty with his book A New Voyage Round the World, Dampier was given command of a Royal Navy ship and made important discoveries in western Australia, before being court-martialled for cruelty. On a later voyage he rescued Alexander Selkirk, a former crewmate who may have inspired Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Others influenced by Dampier include James Cook, Horatio Nelson, Charles Darwin.
In 1679, Dampier joined the crew of the buccaneer Captain Bartholomew Sharp on the Spanish Main of Central America, twice visiting the Bay of Campeche, or "Campeachy" as it was then known, on the north coast of Mexico. This led to his first circumnavigation, during which he accompanied a raid across the Isthmus of Darién in Panama and took part in the capture of Spanish ships on the Pacific coast of that isthmus. The pirates then raided Spanish settlements in Peru before returning to the Caribbean.
Dampier made his way to Virginia, where in 1683 he was engaged by the privateer John Cooke. Cooke entered the Pacific via Cape Horn and spent a year raiding Spanish possessions in Peru, the Galápagos Islands, and Mexico. This expedition collected buccaneers and ships as it went along, at one time having a fleet of ten vessels. Cooke died in Mexico, and a new leader, Edward Davis, was elected captain by the crew.
Dampier transferred to the privateer Charles Swan's ship, Cygnet, and on 31 March 1686 they set out across the Pacific to raid the East Indies, calling at Guam and Mindanao. Spanish witnesses saw the predominantly English crew as not only pirates and heretics but also cannibals. Leaving Swan and 36 others behind on Mindanao, the rest of the privateers sailed on to Manila, Poulo Condor, China, the Spice Islands, and New Holland. Contrary to Dampier's later claim that he had not actively participated in actual piratical attacks during this voyage, he was in fact selected in 1687 to command one of the Spanish ships captured by Cygnet's crew off Manila.
On 5 January 1688, Cygnet "anchored two miles from shore in 29 fathoms" on the northwest coast of Australia, near King Sound. Dampier and his ship remained there until March 12, and while the ship was being careened Dampier made notes on the fauna and flora and the indigenous peoples he found there. Among his fellows were a significant number of Spanish sailors, most notably Alonso Ramírez, a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico  Later that year, by agreement, Dampier and two shipmates were marooned on one of the Nicobar Islands. They obtained a small canoe which they modified after first capsizing and then, after surviving a great storm at sea, called at "Acheen" (Aceh) in Sumatra.
Dampier returned to England in 1691 via the Cape of Good Hope, penniless but in possession of his journals. He also had as a source of income a slave known as Prince Jeoly (or Giolo), from Miangas (now Indonesia), who became famous for his tattoos (or "paintings" as they were known at the time). Dampier exhibited Jeoly in London, thereby also generating publicity for a book based on his diaries.
The publication of the book, A New Voyage Round the World, in 1697 was a popular sensation, creating interest at the Admiralty. In 1699, Dampier was given command of the 26-gun warship HMS Roebuck, with a commission from King William III (who had ruled jointly with Queen Mary II until her death in 1694). His mission was to explore the east coast of New Holland, the name given by the Dutch to what is now Australia, and Dampier's intention was to travel there via Cape Horn.
The expedition set out on 14 January 1699, too late in the season to attempt the Horn, so it headed to New Holland via the Cape of Good Hope instead. Following the Dutch route to the Indies, Dampier passed between Dirk Hartog Island and the Western Australian mainland into what he called Shark Bay on 6 August 1699. He landed and began producing the first known detailed record of Australian flora and fauna. The botanical drawings that were made are believed to be by his clerk, James Brand. Dampier then followed the coast north-east, reaching the Dampier Archipelago and Lagrange Bay, just south of what is now called Roebuck Bay, all the while recording and collecting specimens, including many shells. From there he bore northward for Timor. Then he sailed east and on 3 December 1699 rounded New Guinea, which he passed to the north. He traced the south-eastern coasts of New Hanover, New Ireland and New Britain, charting the Dampier Strait between these islands (now the Bismarck Archipelago) and New Guinea. En route, he paused to collect specimens such as giant clams.
By this time, Roebuck was in such bad condition that Dampier was forced to abandon his plan to examine the east coast of New Holland while less than a hundred miles from it. In danger of sinking, he attempted to make the return voyage to England, but the ship foundered at Ascension Island on 21 February 1701. While anchored offshore the ship began to take on more water and the carpenter could do nothing with the worm-eaten planking. As a result, the vessel had to be run aground. Dampier's crew was marooned there for five weeks before being picked up on 3 April by an East Indiaman and returned home in August 1701.
Although many papers were lost with Roebuck, Dampier was able to save some new charts of coastlines, and his record of trade winds and currents in the seas around Australia and New Guinea. He also preserved a few of his specimens. In 2001, the Roebuck wreck was located in Clarence Bay, Ascension Island, by a team from the Western Australian Maritime Museum. Because of his widespread influence, and also because so little exists that can now be linked to him, it has been argued that the remains of his ship and the objects still at the site on Ascension Island – while the property of Britain and subject to the island government's management – are actually the shared maritime heritage of those parts of the world first visited or described by him. His account of the expedition was published as A Voyage to New Holland in 1703.
The War of the Spanish Succession had broken out in 1701, and English privateers were being readied to act against French and Spanish interests. Dampier was appointed commander of the 26-gun ship St George, with a crew of 120 men. They were joined by the 16-gun Cinque Ports with 63 men, and sailed on 11 September 1703 from Kinsale, Ireland. The two ships made a storm-tossed passage round Cape Horn, arriving at the Juan Fernández Islands off the coast of Chile in February 1704.  While watering and provisioning there, they sighted a heavily armed French merchantman, which they engaged in a seven-hour battle but were driven off.
Dampier succeeded in capturing a number of small Spanish ships along the coast of Peru, but released them after removing only a fraction of their cargoes because he believed they "would be a hindrance to his greater designs. The greater design he had in mind was a raid on Santa María, a town on the Gulf of Panama rumoured to hold stockpiles of gold from nearby mines. When the force of seamen he led against the town met with unexpectedly strong resistance, however, he withdrew. In May 1704, Cinque Ports separated from St George and, after putting Alexander Selkirk ashore alone on an island for complaining about the vessel's seaworthiness, sank off the coast of what is today Colombia. Some of its crew survived being shipwrecked but were made prisoners of the Spanish.
It was now left to St George to make an attempt on the Manila galleon, the main object of the expedition. The ship was sighted on 6 December 1704, probably Nuestra Señora del Rosario. It was caught unprepared and had not run out its guns. But while Dampier and his officers argued over the best way to mount an attack, the galleon got its guns loaded and the battle was joined. St George soon found itself out-sized by the galleon's 18- and 24-pounders, and, suffering serious damage, they were forced to break off the attack.
The failure to capture the Spanish galleon completed the break-up of the expedition. Dampier, with about thirty men, stayed in St George, while the rest of the crew took a captured barque across the Pacific to Amboyna in the Dutch settlements. The undermanned and worm-damaged St George had to be abandoned on the coast of Peru. He and his remaining men embarked in a Spanish prize for the East Indies, where they were thrown into prison as pirates by their supposed allies the Dutch but later released. Now without a ship, Dampier made his way back to England at the end of 1707.
In 1708, Dampier was engaged to serve on the privateer Duke, not as captain but as sailing master. Duke beat its way into the South Pacific Ocean round Cape Horn in consort with a second ship, Duchess. Commanded by Woodes Rogers, this voyage was more successful: Selkirk was rescued on 2 February 1709, and the expedition amassed £147,975  (equivalent to £19.9 million today) worth of plundered goods. Most of that came from the capture of a Spanish galleon, Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación y Desengaño, along the coast of Mexico in December 1709.
In January 1710, Dampier crossed the Pacific in Duke, accompanied by Duchess and two prizes. They stopped at Guam before arriving in Batavia. Following a refit at Horn Island (near Batavia) and the sale of one of their prize ships, they sailed for the Cape of Good Hope where they remained for more than three months awaiting a convoy. They left the Cape in company with 25 Dutch and English ships, with Dampier now serving as sailing master of Encarnación. After a further delay at the Texel, they dropped anchor at the Thames in London on 14 October 1711.
Dampier may not have lived to receive all of his share of the expedition's gains. He died in the Parish of St Stephen Coleman Street, London. The exact date and circumstances of his death, and his final resting place, are all unknown. His will was proven on 23 March 1715, and it is generally assumed he died earlier that month, but this is not known with any certainty. (Ref Tooley M&B)

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - 
Colors used: - 
General color appearance: - 
Paper size: - 12in x 7 1/2in (305mm x 190mm)
Plate size: - 12in x 7 1/2in (305mm x 190mm)
Margins: - Min 1/4in (5mm)

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

$750.00 USD
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1730 J G Dopplemayr & J B Homann Large Antique Celestial Map Mythology & Zodiac

1730 J G Dopplemayr & J B Homann Large Antique Celestial Map Mythology & Zodiac

  • Title : Globi Coelestis In Tabulas Planas Redacti Pars II
  • Ref #:  17031
  • Condition: (B) Good Condition
  • Size: 23 1/2in x 20 1/4in (600mm x 515mm)
  • Date : 1730
  • Price: $425.00US

Description:
This large original copper plate engraved hand coloured antique celestial chart was engraved by Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr in 1730 - the date is engraved in the title - and was published by JB Homann in Atlas Coelestis.

This is the second chart in a series of six depicting part of the night sky on a gnomonic projection with the fixed stars for the end of the year of Christ 1730 according to the rules of arithmetic and geometry.

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: - 23 1/2in x 20 1/4in (600mm x 515mm)
Plate size: - 23in x 19 1/2in (590mm x 495mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Age toning in margins, light creasing
Plate area: - Creasing and discolouration
Verso: - Creasing and age toning

Background:
The constellations are shown as figures according to classical mythology and the zodiac as derived from Hevelius. The more recently named constellations are shown as scientific instruments. The paths of several comets are traced following a pattern established by Pardies.
Specifically this chart is an internal view of the sky centred on the vernal equinox in a gnomonic projection between the declinations 45° North and 45° South. Also depicted are the paths of the comets C/1577 V1 (observed by Tycho Brahe), C/1585 T1 (Tycho Brahe), C/1590 E1 (Tycho Brahe), C/1664 W1 (Giovanni Domenico Cassini), C/1665 F1 (Johannes Hevelius), C/1672 E1 (Giovanni Domenico Cassini), C/1677 H1 (Johannes Hevelius), C/1680 V1 (John Flamsteed) and C/1683 O1 (Johannes Hevelius).
Doppelmayr wrote on astronomy, geography, cartography, spherical trigonometry, sundials and mathematical instruments. He often collaborated with the cartographer Johann Baptista Homann (1664-1724), a former Dominican monk from Oberkammlach in Schwabia who in 1688 had settled in Nuremberg and became a map engraver for the publishing firms of Jacob von Sandrart and David Funck.
In 1702, Homann founded an influential cartographic publishing firm that after his death was continued by his son Johann Christoph Homann (1703-1730) and after the latters death by his friend Johann Michael Franz (1700-1761) and his stepsisters husband Johann Georg Ebersberger (1695-1760) under the name Homännische Erben. The publishing firm remained in business under different names until 1848. (Ref: Adelung, J.Chr., Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr; Cantor, M., Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr)

Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.

$425.00 USD
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1752 D Anville Large Antique Map of Louisiana, New Orleans, Gulf Coast, America

1752 D Anville Large Antique Map of Louisiana, New Orleans, Gulf Coast, America

  • Title : Carte de La Louisiane Par le Sr D Anville Dressee Mai 1732. Publiee en 1752
  • Ref #:  17025
  • Size: 26in x 23in (710mm x 580mm)
  • Date : 1752
  • Condition: (A) Very Good Condition

Description:

This large original copper-plate engraved antique left sheet of the map of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast was first engraved in 1732 with updates to 1752 by Guillaume Nicolas Delahaye (1727 - 1802) - the dates are engraved in the title - and was published by Jean-Baptiste Bourguinon D Anville's in his large elephant folio atlas Atlas Generale.
NB - I have included an image of the map joined.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 26in x 23in (710mm x 580mm)
Plate size: - 24 3/4in x 20 3/4in (630mm x 530mm)
Margins: - Min 1/8in (3mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning and creasing in margins
Plate area: - Light age toning
Verso: - Small archival tape strips on verso

Background:
An uncommon, historically important and influential map of US South coast, stretching from the Gulf of Mobile to the mouth of the Sabine in Texas, centering on New Orleans and the surrounding area. It is one of the earliest and most detailed large format maps of the region, depicting early French settlements of the Gulf Coast region.
The map tracks the Mississippi, Arkansas, Red, Osage and Missouri Rivers.
It is known that Thomas Jefferson acquired 7 of D Anvilles maps in 1787, almost certainly, this was one of them. Jefferson commented to Gallatin about the importance of this map. Meriwether Lewis obtained a copy prior to the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
It is also know that most of the information for this map is derived from Valentin Devin, who arrived in Pensacola in 1719 and began producing highly detailed maps immediately upon his arrival on the Gulf Coast, until expelled by the Spanish after a three year struggle. Devin used his information and materials gathered from Le Maire and others to produce a number of manuscript maps which were sent back to France and resulted in a series of marvellous maps by De L'Isle, Buache and finally D'Anville, whose maps of the Gulf Coast formed the standard for a number of years.
To illustrate the cartography of the middle to latter part of the eighteenth century - especially detail of America & the Southern Hemisphere - a D' Anville map is essential. He dominated not only the French but all contemporary geographers, regardless of nationality.
He was foremost in using the latest and most accurate cartographic information from the latest discoveries of French explorers of the day but also from Cook and others. And unlike many cartographers of the day he was not adverse to leave blank spaces in his maps where knowledge was insufficient.

Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.

$975.00 USD
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1740 Georg Seutter Large Antique Twin Hemisphere World Map - Beautiful

1740 Georg Seutter Large Antique Twin Hemisphere World Map - Beautiful

  • Title : Diversi Globi Terr-Aquei Statione Variante Et Visu Intercedente, Per Coluros Tropicorum, Per Ambos Polos Et Particul. Sphaerae Zenith In Planum Delineati Orthographici Prospectus ; Quibus Additae Pro Mutatione Horizontis Differentes Sphaerae Positiones Earumque Mutua Cum Circ. Coelestibus Convenientia Et Relatio Augustae Vindelicor. Cura Et Studio Matth. Seutteri, S.C. Maj. Geogr.
  • Ref #:  17004
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Size: 24in x 21 1/2in (610mm x 545mm)
  • Date : 1740
  • Price: $2,750.00US

Description:
This original beautifully hand coloured large antique Twin Hemisphere World map was published by the German publisher Georg Matthaus Seutter in ca 1740.
This is a magnificent map, beautifully hand coloured in superb condition, a great addition to any collection.

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: - 24in x 21 1/2in (610mm x 545mm)
Plate size: - 23in x 19 3/4in (585mm x 500mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light soiling in margins
Plate area: - None
Verso: - Re-enforced along centerfold

Background:
This map, of two central hemispheres, is surrounded by eight smaller, circular projections depicting the world from various orientations, as well as four circular scientific diagrams.
The projection on the left shows the Western Hemisphere. In North America, California is depicted as an island, and a vast northwestern coast, Terra Essonis, stretches off the map. In the South Pacific, a partial coastline can be seen for New Zealand and a large block of text explains the ecliptic and the constellations that lie along that line, the signs of the Zodiac.
The projection on the right shows the Eastern Hemisphere, with an easily-recognizable Europe and Africa; Asias eastern coastline is oddly smoothed and shortened. A distorted Japan has been fused with the conjectural landmass Terra Yedso. Compared to Allards map, the graticule is shifted east; that is, more of Oceania is included in this hemisphere, rather than in the western hemisphere.
Partial coastlines for Australia (Nova Hollandia), New Guinea, and surrounding lands are depicted in the Pacific. The shores of Australia are based on early Dutch encounters with the northern and western coastlines, and place names on the western coast are marked with their years of discovery. The Southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans remain conspicuously empty, noted only as Terra Australis Incognita, or unknown southern land, a departure from the grandiose southern continents often seen on earlier and even contemporary world maps.
Dotted lines crisscrossing both hemispheres, not present in Allards original map, trace important voyages of European encounter. One line traces Ferdinand Magellans quest to find a westward route to the Spice Islands via the southern tip of South America, departing Malaga, Spain, in August 1519, and returning (after the death of Magellan and much of the crew) in September 1522. Another important voyage traced is that of Abel Tasman in 1642 to Oceania, including observation of parts of the Australian coastline and the first European encounter with New Zealand.
In the top and lower center of the map, smaller circular projections depict the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Seutter, like Allard before him, has chosen to leave the South Pole empty, rather than fill it with hypothetical beaches and lands. Two small polar projections appear at the bottom of the map. Four small circular scientific diagrams are depicted at the outer corners of the twin hemispheres. The diagram in the upper left depicts lines of latitude and longitude, while the diagrams in the other three corners show the relationship between the zenith, the nadir, and different horizons.
Circular projections in the four corners of the map show the world from slightly different, oblique or optical orientations. These allow viewers to understand which landmasses are antipodal to certain points. The figure in the upper left shows the antipodes of Amsterdam, with Amsterdam on the hemisphere in the upper right corner (this is stated explicitly in Allards map of 1696, but is merely implied here.) The two hemispheres in the bottom corners show the world as if in 3-D, with the meridians curved to show the world as round, rather than flattened as many map projections do.
Finally, there are several decorative features in the map. While the map lacks the lushly illustrated border scenes common in maps of the previous century, it incorporates more decorative detail than the Allard map it is based on. Surrounding the map, twelve wind heads peer out from the darkness, based upon the twelve classical wind heads from antiquity. The two cartouches at the top of the map add further decorative flourishes.
The present map appeared in the first edition of Seutters Atlas Novus sive Tabulae Geographicae, first published in Augsburg in 1720. As stated above, this map is based on Carel Allards 1696 double-hemisphere world map. Similar maps were produced by fellow eighteenth-century mapmakers such as Pieter Schenk, Adam Friedrich Zürner, and Johann Homann.
The present map contains several noteworthy features in the Pacific Ocean. Australia is less accurately depicted than in Allards map; it is suggestively connected to surrounding landmasses with incomplete coastlines. Carpentaria, named for Pieter de Carpentier, governor-general (1623–27) of the Dutch East Indies extends toward New Guinea.
North of Carpentaria is Nova Britania, and a note indicates it was discovered by English buccaneer William Dampier, who explored the north and west coasts of Australia in 1688 and 1699. Dampier was a buccaneer, pilot, and natural historian who was also the first person to circumnavigate the world three times.
South of Australia is Diemens Land, named by Abel Tasman for his commander, Anthony van Diemen, governor-general (1636–45) of the Dutch East Indies. In the lower left of the left projection, the incomplete coastline of New Zealand also references Abel Tasman. Anthony van Diemen is again honored here, with Cape Maria van Diemen being named by Tasman after van Diemens wife. Unlike in Allards map, Quiri Regio, named after Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandes de Quiros and corresponding to present-day Vanuatu, is not present.
The northern Pacific also includes interesting geographic elements, reflective of information gleaned from the 1643 voyage of Maarten Gerritszoon de Vries, a Dutch explorer for the VOC. De Vries is credited with charting islands and promontories north of Japan, which were then believed to be part of America. In the right projection, an enlarged Hokkaido is clearly labeled as Yedso and is connected to the misshapen Japanese mainland. Unlike in Allards map, Yedso does not stretch east to connect to Terra Essonis, the vast, empty expanse of land stretching westward off of North America. Interestingly, though, Terra Essonis does appear connected to Yedso and Japan in the smaller projections on either side of the right cartouche at the top of the map, and second to right at the bottom. These smaller projections match Allards depiction.
The origin of Terra Essonis is tangled with that of Compagnie Land, a conjectural landmass not depicted in Allards map. In 1589, Portuguese explorer João da Gama fled the East Indies to escape sentencing for illegally trading oriental silks with the Spanish for South American gold. Sailing east, da Gama reported the existence of an uninterrupted coast northeast of Japan stretching from Asia to North America. A dotted line tracing da Gamas voyage runs along the coast of Terra Essonis.
Da Gamas claim was also sometimes depicted on maps as a series of islands or a landmass called Gamaland. Gamaland was searched for by several explorers, including the aforementioned Maarten Gerritszoon de Vries in 1643. While searching for Gamaland, de Vries found two new islands—Compagnie Land (named in honor of the Dutch East Indies Company) and Staaten Land (named after the Dutch States General). These islands correspond to Iturup and Urup, part of the volcanic Kuril Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk. Compagnie Land was sometimes taken as proof of the existence of Gamaland, and, along with Terra Essonis, continued to appear on maps long after da Gamas death in ca. 1592, as evidenced by this map created more than a century later.
As far as evidence of the fabled Northwest Passage linking Europe to Asia above or across North America, this map portrays the Fretum Anian (Straits of Anian) separating Terra Essonis and California, but it does not depict where the straits lead to in the north. The Straits of Anian were believed to mark the separation between Asia and North America, which would be disproven in the mid-eighteenth century with the discovery of the Bering Strait.
Another noteworthy detail in the present map is the island of California, which can be seen on four of the eight projections. From its first portrayal on a printed map by Diego Gutiérrez, in 1562, California was shown as part of North America by mapmakers, including Gerardus Mercator and Ortelius. In the 1620s, however, it began to appear as an island in several sources.
This was most likely the result of a reading of the travel account of Sebastian Vizcaino, who had been sent north up the shore of California in 1602. A Carmelite friar who accompanied him later described the land as an island, a description first published in Juan Torquemadas Monarquia Indiana (1613) with the island details curtailed somewhat. The friar, Fray Antonio de la Ascension, also wrote a Relacion breve of his geographic ideas around 1620. The ideas spread about New Spain and, eventually, most likely via Dutch mariners and perhaps thanks to stolen charts, to the rest of Europe.
By the 1620s, many mapmakers chose to depict the peninsula as an island. These included Henricus Hondius, who published the first atlas map to focus solely on North America with the island prominently featured in 1636. Hondius borrowed his outline of California from another widely distributed map, that of Henry Briggs and printed in Samuel Purchas Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625). Other prominent practitioners like John Speed and Nicolas Sanson also adopted the new island and the practice became commonplace.
Father Eusebio Kino initially followed along with this theory, but after extensive travels in what is now California, Arizona, and northern Mexico, he concluded that the island was actually a peninsula. Even after Kino published a map based on his travels refuting the claim (Paris, 1705), California as an island remained a fixture until the mid-eighteenth century, as can be seen in the present map.
This dynamic map displays a unique combination of scientific information and decorative imagery, portraying updated geographic information based on exploration while still incorporating on conjecture and decorative elements.

Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.

$3,250.00 USD
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1744 Georg Mattaus Seutter Antique Map Holy Land, Palestine, Israel, XII Tribes

1744 Georg Mattaus Seutter Antique Map Holy Land, Palestine, Israel, XII Tribes

  • Title : Terra Sancta vocata Quae, Olim XII Tribes........a Matth. Seutteri...T C Lotter, Geogr.
  • Ref #:  93403
  • Size: 11in x 8 1/2in (280mm x 215mm)
  • Date : 1744
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This beautifully hand coloured original copper-plate engraved antique map of The Holy Land was engraved by Tobias Lotter and was published in the 1744 edition of GM Seutters Atlas Minor Prae cipua Orbis Terrarum Imperia Regna et Provincias...., Augsburg, Germany.

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 8 1/2in (280mm x 215mm)
Plate size: - 10 1/2in x 8in (265mm x 205mm)
Margins: - Min 1/4in (5mm)

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

Background:
Atlas Minor was a series of beautiful maps of all parts of the world. Georg Matthäus Seutter was one of the most and important of the German cartographers of the 18th century, being appointed as the Geographer to the Imperial Court. His son, Albrecht Carl, joined Matthäus and eventually inherited the business. The maps from Atlas Minor were drawn by the two Seutters and engraved by Tobias Conrad Lotte. These maps are highly detailed and engraved with a bold hand with equally strong original hand color in the body of the map as was the 18th century German style. The cartouches were left uncolored in order to emphasize the elaborately detailed illustrations for which German maps are especially prized. These are some of the most decorative and interesting maps of the eighteenth century.

$325.00 USD
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1797 Laperouse Large Antique Map of Necker Island Mokumanamana Hawaii - Menehune

1797 Laperouse Large Antique Map of Necker Island Mokumanamana Hawaii - Menehune

  • Title : Carte Plate de L ile Necker ...Basse des Fregates Francaises...Descouvertes en Novembre 1786
  • Date : 1797
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Ref:  92828
  • Size: 31in x 23in (780mm x 585mm)

Description:
This large original copper plate engraved antique of the Necker Island (Mokumanamana) in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands by Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de la Pérouse - was published in the 1st edition of the Atlas du voyage de La Perouse, Paris 1797.
La Perouse set sail from France in 1785 to continue the discoveries of Captain Cook. He was shipwrecked in 1788 but his narrative, maps, and views survived and were published in 1797.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 31in x 23in (780mm x 585mm)
Plate size: - 31in x 23in (780mm x 585mm)
Margins: - Min 2in (50mm)

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

Background: 
Necker Island (Hawaiian: Mokumanamana) is a small island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It is located 155 miles northwest of Nihoa and 8 miles north of the Tropic of Cancer. It contains important prehistoric archaeological sites of the Hawaiian culture and is part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge within the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument.
Few signs of long-term human habitation have been found. However, the island contains 33 stone shrines and stone artifacts much like those found in the main Hawaiian Islands. Because of this, many anthropologists believe that the island was a ceremonial and religious site. According to the myths and legends of the people of Kauai, which lies to the southeast, Necker Island was the last known refuge for a race of mythical little people called the Menehune. According to the legend, the Menehune settled on Necker after being chased off Kauai by the stronger Polynesians and subsequently built the various stone structures there. Visits to the island are said to have started a few hundred years after the main Hawaiian Islands were inhabited, and ended a few hundred years before European contact. French explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse was the first European to visit the island, in 1786. The island is named after Jacques Necker. The islands were formally annexed in 1894 by the Provisional Government of Hawaii.

$325.00 USD
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1798 W H Hall Large Antique Print Various 18th century Navigational Instruments

1798 W H Hall Large Antique Print Various 18th century Navigational Instruments

Description:
This large original copper-plate engraved antique print was was published by William Henry Hall in the 1798 edition of The new royal encyclopedia; or, complete modern universal dictionary of arts and sciences on a new and improved plan.... printed by Charles Cooke, London.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 15in x 9in (380mm x 230mm)
Plate size: - 15in x 9in (380mm x 230mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (10mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Age toning
Plate area: - Light age toning
Verso: - Age toning

Background:
In the European medieval period, navigation was considered part of the set of seven mechanical arts, none of which were used for long voyages across open ocean. Polynesian navigation is probably the earliest form of open-ocean navigation, it was based on memory and observation recorded on scientific instruments like the Marshall Islands Stick Charts of Ocean Swells. Early Pacific Polynesians used the motion of stars, weather, the position of certain wildlife species, or the size of waves to find the path from one island to another.
Maritime navigation using scientific instruments such as the mariners astrolabe first occurred in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. Although land astrolabes were invented in the Hellenistic period and existed in classical antiquity and the Islamic Golden Age, the oldest record of a sea astrolabe is that of Majorcan astronomer Ramon Llull dating from 1295. The perfecting of this navigation instrument is attributed to Portuguese navigators during early Portuguese discoveries in the Age of Discovery. The earliest known description of how to make and use a sea astrolabe comes from Spanish cosmographer Martín Cortés de Albacars Arte de Navegar (The Art of Navigation) published in 1551, based on the principle of the archipendulum used in constructing the Egyptian pyramids.
Open-seas navigation using the astrolabe and the compass started during the Age of Discovery in the 15th century. The Portuguese began systematically exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa from 1418, under the sponsorship of Prince Henry. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias reached the Indian Ocean by this route. In 1492 the Spanish monarchs funded Christopher Columbuss expedition to sail west to reach the Indies by crossing the Atlantic, which resulted in the Discovery of the Americas. In 1498, a Portuguese expedition commanded by Vasco da Gama reached India by sailing around Africa, opening up direct trade with Asia. Soon, the Portuguese sailed further eastward, to the Spice Islands in 1512, landing in China one year later.
The first circumnavigation of the earth was completed in 1522 with the Magellan-Elcano expedition, a Spanish voyage of discovery led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and completed by Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano after the formers death in the Philippines in 1521. The fleet of seven ships sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Southern Spain in 1519, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and after several stopovers rounded the southern tip of South America. Some ships were lost, but the remaining fleet continued across the Pacific making a number of discoveries including Guam and the Philippines. By then, only two galleons were left from the original seven. The Victoria led by Elcano sailed across the Indian Ocean and north along the coast of Africa, to finally arrive in Spain in 1522, three years after its departure. The Trinidad sailed east from the Philippines, trying to find a maritime path back to the Americas, but was unsuccessful. The eastward route across the Pacific, also known as the tornaviaje (return trip) was only discovered forty years later, when Spanish cosmographer Andrés de Urdaneta sailed from the Philippines, north to parallel 39°, and hit the eastward Kuroshio Current which took its galleon across the Pacific. He arrived in Acapulco on October 8, 1565.

Hall, William Henry
Hall was responsible for a significant publication in the middle of the 18th century The new royal encyclopedia; or, complete modern universal dictionary of arts and sciences on a new and improved plan . containing a digest and display of the whole theory and practice of the liberal and mechanical arts comprising a general repository of ancient and modern literature . including all the material information that is contained in Chamber s Cyclopedia, the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the French Encyclopædie . first published in 1788 going into many re-issues over the next 50 years.
The three volume set contained 153 copper-plate prints and maps, including some folding maps. Contained many brief encyclopedic entries in alphabetical orders plus longer, mainly illustrated, sections (systems or treatises) on a variety of subjects: Aerology; Aerostation (hot air balloons); Agriculture; Algebra; Amphibiology; Anatomy; Annuities; Architecture; Arithmetic; Astronomy (includes plates of telescopes); Book-Keeping; Botany; Brewing; Chronology; Chymistry; Comparative Anatomy; Concology; Dialling; Distillation; Drawing; Earth; Earthquakes; Electricity; Entomology; Farriery; Fencing; Fluxions; Fortification; Gardening; Geography (this section includes six folding maps); Geometry; Globes; Grammar; Heraldry; Hydrostatics and Hydraulics (one plate included a diving bell); Icthyology; Knighthood; Logic; Mammalia (included a plate showing whales); Mechanics; Medicine; Mensuration and Gauging; Miscroscopic Apparatus (microscopes); Midwifery; Military Affairs; Music; Natural History; Naval Affairs; Navigation (includes a folding map showing Cooks voyages); Optics; Oratory; Ornithology; Peerage; Perspective; Pneumatics; Projectiles; Steam Engines; Surgery; Surveying; Trigonometry; Vermeology; Volcanos; and War. Hard to find a complete set, as many have been broken up for their handsome copper plate engravings and maps.

$125.00 USD
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1798 Arron Arrowsmith Antique Map of India or Hindoostan

1798 Arron Arrowsmith Antique Map of India or Hindoostan

Description:
This highly detailed original copper-plate engraved antique map by Aaron Arrowsmith was published in the 1798 edition of Clement Crutwells Atlas to Crutwells Universal Gazatteer.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 12in x 9 1/2in (305mm x 240mm)
Plate size: - 12in x 9 1/2in (305mm x 240mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Folds as issued
Plate area: - Folds as issued, light age toning
Verso: - Folds as issued

Background:
Clement Cruttwell (1743 - 1808) was an English compiler of religious works and gazetteers.
Cruttwell was born at Wokingham, Berkshire in 1743. He enrolled at St Mary Hall, Oxford on 14 December 1780. He commenced his career as a surgeon at Bath, where he published his Advice to Lying-in Women in 1779. He soon afterwards took orders. He published Bishop Thomas Wilsons Bible and an autobiography in 1785. He then began his Concordance of the Parallel Texts of Scripture (1790), which he printed in his own house, and on its completion his health was so broken down that he went to the baths of Saint-Amand for a cure. His Gazetteer of France (1793) and Gazetteer of the Netherlands (1794) were succeeded by his Universal Gazetteer (1798), an enormous compilation, of which the entire edition was quickly sold out. He was engaged on a second edition of this great work, which was to contain thirty thousand fresh articles, when he died suddenly while on the way to his native town, at Froxfield in Wiltshire, on 5 August 1808.

$175.00 USD
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1798 Arron Arrowsmith Antique Map of Africa

1798 Arron Arrowsmith Antique Map of Africa

Description:
This highly detailed original copper-plate engraved antique map by Aaron Arrowsmith was published in the 1798 edition of Clement Crutwells Atlas to Crutwells Universal Gazatteer.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 12in x 9 1/2in (305mm x 240mm)
Plate size: - 12in x 9 1/2in (305mm x 240mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - Folds as issued, light age toning
Verso: - Light age toning

Background:
Clement Cruttwell (1743 - 1808) was an English compiler of religious works and gazetteers.
Cruttwell was born at Wokingham, Berkshire in 1743. He enrolled at St Mary Hall, Oxford on 14 December 1780. He commenced his career as a surgeon at Bath, where he published his Advice to Lying-in Women in 1779. He soon afterwards took orders. He published Bishop Thomas Wilsons Bible and an autobiography in 1785. He then began his Concordance of the Parallel Texts of Scripture (1790), which he printed in his own house, and on its completion his health was so broken down that he went to the baths of Saint-Amand for a cure. His Gazetteer of France (1793) and Gazetteer of the Netherlands (1794) were succeeded by his Universal Gazetteer (1798), an enormous compilation, of which the entire edition was quickly sold out. He was engaged on a second edition of this great work, which was to contain thirty thousand fresh articles, when he died suddenly while on the way to his native town, at Froxfield in Wiltshire, on 5 August 1808.

$175.00 USD
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1613 Gerard Mercator Large Antique Map of Europe - Europa ad Magnae

1613 Gerard Mercator Large Antique Map of Europe - Europa ad Magnae

  • Title : Europa ad magnae Europae Gerardi Mercatoris P. imitationem Rumoldi Mercatoris . . ..
  • Date : 1613
  • Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
  • Ref:  93357
  • Size: 21 1/2in x 17in (545mm x 435mm)

Description:
The beautiful original hand colouring on this map is incredibly striking, on this original antique map of Europe published in the 1613 French edition of Gerard Mercators Atlas Sive Cosmographia.

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: - 21 1/2in x 17in (545mm x 435mm)
Plate size: - 18 1/2in x 15 1/4in (470mm x 390mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Soiling, age toning, old neutralised tape mark bottom right
Plate area: - Neutralised tape mark bottom right
Verso: - Soiling, age toning, old neutralised tape mark

Background:
The detail for the map is taken from Mercators large 1569 world wall map and includes much detail, both real and fictitious. The original colouring denotes the political country boundaries of the 15th & 16th centuries. To the north are shown the islands of the Northern Arctic, Terra Polaris Pars, Greenland and the eastern extremity of America. To the south of Iceland is the fictitious island of Frisland where the Venetian brothers Nicolo and Antonio Zeno claimed where they were stranded after discovering America before Columbus. The younger Zeno produced a map describing these false discoveries. Mercator accepted these falsehoods and copied them into this map. Other cartographers at this time were fooled by Mercator and also copied his mistake. Frisland appears more dominate than the real island of Iceland.
The map is beautifully engraved, with Mercators recognisable flair and beautiful, rare original hand colouring. A beautiful map

$1,250.00 USD
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1609 Mercator Hondius Antique Map of Siberia, China, Central Asia, North America

1609 Mercator Hondius Antique Map of Siberia, China, Central Asia, North America

Description: 
This fine beautifully hand coloured original antique map of Central Asia, China & Eastern Russia with a very early view of the NW coast of America - one of the first maps to depict this region - by Gerard Mercator was published by Joducus Hondius in the 1609 French edition of Mercators Atlas.

Condition Report:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy, stained & weak in places
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, pink, green
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 23in x 19in (580mm x 480mm)
Plate size: - 19 1/2in x 13 1/2in (490mm x 340mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

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

Background: 
A beautifully ornate map in a style highly popular in the 16th and early 17th centuries. To the left of the map is the image of a man of Central Asia and another of an Arctic Hunter, possibly an Eskimo. The rest of the map is full of detail both real and myth, some of which is no doubt borrowed from the writings of Marco Polo considered at the time one of the foremost expert on China and Central Asia. Overlooked by some experts is the inclusion of the NW Coastline of America important as it would be 150 years before this region was thoroughly mapped by Capt. James Cook in the 1770's.

The newly discovered northern coastline of Nova Zembla is shown with a notation concerning the Dutch expedition led by Willem Barents in 1594-96. Interesting notations in Siberia, Ung quae Gog and Sumongul quae Mogog, refer to the mythological lands of Gog and Magog. These lands, noted in the Bible as being situated in the remotest parts of the earth, were originally depicted on maps just north of Israel. Also shown is the Great Wall of China, Korea is depicted as an Island, a very early example of the the Northwest Coast of America, naming Cape de Fortuna and the Straits of Anian. The map extends west to include the Black Sea and Russia, but the primary focus of the map is Tartaria, Central Asia China and Asiatic Russia. Decorative vignettes in include a nomadic tribe, tents and livestock. An early map of the region and certainly one of the most decorative of the genre.

Jodocus Hondius (1563 - 1612), one of the most notable engravers of his time, is known for his work in association with many of the cartographers and publishers prominent at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
In 1604 Hondius bought the plates of Mercator's Atlas which, in spite of its excellence, had not competed successfully with the continuing demand of Abraham Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. 
To meet this competition Hondius added about 40 maps to Mercator's original number and from 1606 published enlarged editions in many languages, still under Mercator's name but with his own name as publisher. These atlases have become known as the Mercator/Hondius series. The following year the maps were re-engraved in miniature form and issued as a pocket Atlas Minor.
After the death of Jodocus Hondius the Elder in 1612, work on the two atlases, folio and miniature, was carried on by his widow and sons, Jodocus II and Henricus, and eventually in conjunction with Jan Jansson in Amsterdam. In all, from 1606 onwards, nearly 50 editions with increasing numbers of maps with texts in the main European languages were printed. (Ref: Koeman; M&B; Tooley)

 

$1,499.00 USD
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1770 De Vaugondy & Diderot Antique Map of Various Cartographical Views of California

1770 De Vaugondy & Diderot Antique Map of Various Cartographical Views of California

  • TitleCarte de la Californie suivant / I. La carte manuscrite de l'Amérique de Mathieu Néron Pecci olen dresse à Florence en 1604 / II. Sanson 1656 / III. De L'Isle Amérique Sept. 1700 / IV. le Pere Kino Jesuite en 1705 / V. La Societe des Jésuites en 1767.
  • Ref:  61000
  • Size: 20 1/2in x 15 3/4in (520mm x 400mm)
  • Date : 1770
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description: 
This fine large historically important map, illustrating 5 of the most influential  depictions of California and its cartographical evolution between 1604 and 1767.
The map was engraved by the important French cartographer Robert De Vaugondy, for the 1770 edition of the Denis DiderotEncyclopaedie Raisonee des Sciences des  Artes. 
The map is in fine B&W original condition with wide margins and a dark impression with clean sturdy cabled laid paper.

The earliest map (upper right corner) is based upon a manuscript map by Mathieu Neron Pecci, drawn in Florence in 1604. This map also forms the basis of a map popularized in 1770 by Rigobert Bonne.

The second map is Nicholas Sanson's map of California as an Island, based upon his larger map of 1656. This map was probably the single most influential projection of California as an Island.

The third map map (lower right) is a portion of Guillaume De L'Isles map of America, published in 1700. While not truly peninsular in nature, it was influential in the shift back toward depicting California as a Peninsula.

The fourth map (upper center) is a portion of Fra. Eusebio Kino's map, generally credited with being the map which dispelled the California as and Island myth. Issued in 1705, the map is based upon Father Kino's overland expedition from the mainland to the top of the Gulf of Cortez.

The fifth map is one of the most interesting and enduring maps of California and the Baja (left side). Initially issued by the Society of Jesuits in 1767, it was popularized by Isaak Tirion and was perhaps the most interesting of all maps of Baja California in the 2nd half of the 18th Century.

This map was 1 of 10 maps to appear in the Supplement to Diderot's monumental encyclopedia, one of the most influential and widely distirbuted works of the second half of the 18th Century. Diderot's goal was to examine and display the popular geographical conceptions of several different parts of the world where the knowledge of the region's geogaphy was still largely unknown and evolving. Other maps treat the Northwest Passage, Northeast Passage and the NW Coast of America, among other topics.   
A marvelous amalgam and an essential map for collectors of North American & California maps.

Encyclopaedie Raisonee des Sciences des Artes: At the time of publication these maps of Encyclopedie were some of the most in-depth and accurate maps published of Asia, Canada, California and the NW region of America.
Diderot's maps were intended to further an understanding of the Western Coast of America, and NE Asia, during a time period immediately prior to Cook's  voyage to the region - less than a decade later- where numerous theories abounded on the NW Coast of America.(Ref: Tooley; M&B)

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: -  
Colors used: - 
General color appearance: -  
Paper size: - 20 1/2in x 15 3/4in (520mm x 400mm)
Plate size: - 15 1/2in x 12 1/2in (390mm x 320mm)
Margins: - Min 2in (50mm)

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

$850.00 USD
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1579 Abraham Ortelius Antique Map of Holland - Hollandia Antiquorum Catthorum

1579 Abraham Ortelius Antique Map of Holland - Hollandia Antiquorum Catthorum

  • Title : Hollandia Antiquorum Catthorum Sedis Nova Descriptio, Avctore Iacobo A Daventria
  • Ref #:  50664
  • Size: 21 1/2in x 17in (550mm x 430mm)
  • Date : 1579
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description: 
This beautifully hand coloured original antique map of Holland, 1st edition - based on the cartographic works of Jacob van Deventer - was published by Abraham Ortelius in the 1579 Latin edition of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum.

Ortelius published a total of 7300 of this map between 1570 to 1641 from 3 States:
1570-1584 state 1
1587-1595 State 2
1598-1641 State3.
According to Marcel Van dem Broecke there are estimated to be only 140 loose copies in circulation.

Background: It would be hard to imagine a more inauspicious period for a nation's cultural development than the years between 1520 and 1600 in the Low Countries. Under the harsh domination of the Spanish Emperors, facing fanatical religious persecution and the threat of the Inquisition, the constant presence of foreign troops and even the destruction of some of their cities, the Dutch, nevertheless, in 1581 contrived to break their subservience to Spain and form their own federation. Belgium, being mainly Catholic, remained within the orbit of the Empire though henceforward was recognized as a separate state. In such circumstances there would seem to have been little chance for growth of a national entity in the small Northern Provinces but, on the contrary, under the leadership of Amsterdam, their banking and commercial enterprise soon dominated Europe. The attempt by Philip II to eliminate their control of European coastal trade by the use of Portuguese craft inspired the Dutch, first, to seek a North East passage to India and Asia and then, failing that, to challenge Spanish and Portuguese power directly, not only in European waters but also in the East, and eventually to eclipse it. English attempts to gain a foothold in the Indies were bitterly opposed and the English turned their attention to India where only a handful of Dutch settlements existed.

In spite of the turmoil arising out of these events, first Antwerp and then Amsterdam became centres of the arts and their cartographers, engravers and printers produced magnificent maps and charts of every kind which many claim have never been surpassed. Later in this chapter an account is given of Gerard Mercator, who studied at Louvain under Gemma Frisius, the Dutch astronomer and mathematician, and later moved to Duisburg in the Rhineland where most of his major work was carried Out. There he produced globes, maps of Europe, the British Isles and the famous World Map using his newly invented method of projection, all of which were widely copied by most of the cartographers of the day. The first part of his Atlas - the word chosen by Mercator to describe a collection of maps - was published in 1585, the second in 1589, and the third in 1595, a year after his death.

Other great names of the time were Abraham Ortelius, native of Antwerp, famous for his world atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, issued in 1570; Waghenaer, noted for his sea atlases of 1584 and 1592, Gerard de Jode and Jodocus and Henricus Hondius, followed in the next century by W. J. Blaeu and his sons and Jan Jansson. The Blaeu and Jansson establishments were noted mainly for land atlases but their sea atlases and pilot books were also published in numerous editions which went some way to meeting the rising demand for aids to navigation in European and Mediterranean waters. Their productions were challenged by other, smaller publishers specializing in such works, Jacob Colom, Anthonie Jacobsz, Pieter Goos, Hendrick Doncker, to mention a few, and, later, the charts issued by the van Keulen family and their descendants covered practically all the seas of the known world. As we reach the second half of the seventeenth century the details of publication of these sea atlases and pilot books become more and more interwoven and complicated. Not infrequently the same charts were issued under the imprint of different publishers; at death the engraved plates were sold or passed to their successors and were re-issued, with minor alterations and often without acknowledgement to the originator, all of which adds to problems of identification. Although, in this period, charts of every kind must have been issued in great quantity, good copies are now hard to find.

By about the year 1700 Dutch sea power and influence was waning and although their pilot books and charts remained much in demand for many years to come, leadership in the production of land atlases passed into the hands of the more scientific French cartographers who, in their turn, dominated the map trade for most of the following century.

Atlas Background: For the first time, in 1570, all the elements of the modern Atlas were brought to publication  in Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. This substantial undertaking assembled fifty-three of the best available maps of the world by the most renowned and up to date geographers.
Unlike earlier compositions, such as the Italian composite or "Lafreri" Atlases, each of Ortelius' maps was engraved specifically for his Atlas according to uniform format. Through its launching, pre-eminence in map publishing was transferred from Italy to the Netherlands, leading to over a hundred years of Dutch supremacy in all facts of cartographical production.
There were a total of 7300 copies of Theatrum  published between 1570 - 1612 from 31 editions. (Ref: Van Den Broecke; Tooley)

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Light and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Early color
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 21 1/2in x 17in (550mm x 430mm)
Plate size: - 19 1/2in x 14in (495mm x 355mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light browning in top and bottom margins
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

$1,250.00 USD
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1745 Pieter Mortier Antique World Map with California as an Island

1745 Pieter Mortier Antique World Map with California as an Island

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

$950.00 USD
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1746 Homann Large Antique Map of America

1746 Homann Large Antique Map of America

Description:
Large original hand coloured antique map of America by the Homann Heirs, in 1746 (dated) published on the cusp of great change in North America in the mid to late 18th century.

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: - 23in x 20in (595mm x 510mm)
Plate size: - 22in x 19in (500mm x 470mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Top left margin & border corner restored
Plate area: - Age toning, centerfold re-joined with light creasing
Verso: - Centerfold re-joined with light creasing

Background:
Homanns second map of America, which reflects the substantial new information obtained since the issuance of the first map of America by the patriarch of the Homann Family, Johann Baptiste Homann. The decorative cartouche includes some very lively visual imagery, including volcanos and a nice alegorical scene representing the people, flora and fauna of America.
The interior of North America benefits from the knowledge obtained by the Jesuits in the Interior parts of North America, especially along the Mississippi River and English and Dutch information along the coast. The French are still the dominant force in the North, the Spanish in the South, immediately prior to the French and Indian War. The Great Lakes are only just now being accurately charted by D\'Anville and later Mitchell. The west coast conforms to the French updates provided by De L\'Isle and progeny. South America is substantially corrected from earlier models.
The NW Coast of America and NW Passage are still unknown, but wishfully shown. Quivira is shown considerably east of its normal location. Quivira was the the legendary land of gold and silver. Francisco de Coronado began his search for Quivira in 1541, but found only Indian Villages. He did however report to the Spanish King that the land was suitable for growing all of the products of Spain. Quivira migrated progressively further North and East, until it disappeared in the late 18th Century. The map seems to be influenced primarily by the highly influential map of America by De L\'Isle first issued in 1700, although the Haas retains some of the great mythical cartographic features in the interior regions.

$475.00 USD
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1856 Major Delafield Large Antique Map of The Harbor & City of Cherbourg, France

1856 Major Delafield Large Antique Map of The Harbor & City of Cherbourg, France

  • Title : Plan of the Harbour and City of Cherbourg with its Fortifications
  • Size: 29 1/2in x 19in (750mm x 485mm)
  • Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
  • Date : 1856
  • Ref #:  90135

Description:
This large, scarce, original lithograph antique map of the harbour and city of Cherbourg, France during the Crimea War was published by the American Army Officer Major Richard Delafield in his 1856 report to the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, Report on the Art of War in Europe in 1854, 1855, and 1856 The lithography was completed by Bowen & Co of Philadelphia.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 29 1/2in x 19in (750mm x 485mm)
Plate size: - 29 1/2in x 19in (750mm x 485mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Folds as issued, light age toning along folds
Verso: - Folds re-enforced with archival tape

Background:
Cherbourg Harbour is a harbour situated at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula, on the English Channel coastline in northwestern France. With a surface area of 1,500 hectares, it is the second largest artificial harbour in the world, after the 4,500 hectare Ras Laffan Harbour in Qatar. Cherbourg has been used for mercantile shipping as well as a naval base.
It was begun in 1783, with its central harbour wall completed in 1853 - this was 3.64 km long, an average of 100m wide at its base and an average of 12 m wide at its top, and sited 4 km from the coast. Three forts were added to the central wall in 1860.
Construction began in 1783 and was completed in 70 years, by three architects - La Bretonnière, Louis-Alexandre de Cessart and Joseph Cachin. The first trunk was laid on 6 June 1784, one kilometre from Île Pelée, and the harbour was filled with 300 to 400 boats ferrying stone from the port at Becquet to the mole to build against the trunks. However, the first trunks were severely damaged by storms. On 22 June 1786 Louis XVI made his only trip away from Paris and Versailles to see how far work on the harbour had progressed and assisted in sinking the ninth stone section. Cessarts plans were finally scotched in 1788, with funding having run out and the French Revolution imminent. This marked a return to La Bretonnières plan, but in the period between 1789 and 1790 Dumouriez and Cessart left Cherbourg. Subsidies for the project were cut in 1790 and La Bretonnière was forced to hand in his resignation in 1792. Despite a law passed on 1 August 1792 ordering the construction of the military outer port, all works were suspended from 1792 to 1802.
In 1802, intending to make Cherbourg one of his main military ports in preparation for his invasion of the United Kingdom, Napoleon I ordered that work on the harbour wall be resumed to La Bretonnières plans, by building up the central section to mount cannon. A decree of 25 germinal year XI (1803) ordered the engineer Cachin to excavate the military outer harbour at lac de Moeris - this was opened on 27 August 1813 in the presence of empress Marie-Louise of Austria. That decree also ordered the construction of a new arsenal at the port. 1803 also saw Cherbourgs harbour fend off British attacks and become a base for privateers.
Works on the central wall were again interrupted between 1813 and 1832 and were only finally completed in 1853 under Napoleon III of France, with the western and eastern harbour walls only completed in 1895. The period also saw the opening of two basins in the naval base - the Charles X basin (begun in 1814—290 x220 x18 metres) on 25 August 1829 in the Dauphins presence, and the Napoléon III basin (begun in 1836—420 x200 x18 metres) on 7 August 1858 by Napoleon III and his wife. Work on the harbour was fully completed under the French Third Republic, with the addition of the eastern (1890–1894) and western (1889–1896) walls and the construction of a Petite rade (digue du Hommet, 1899–1914, and digue des Flamands, 1921–1922). Charles Maurice Cabart Danneville made an entry point in the harbours eastern breakwater, the digue Collignon, so that fishing boats could get out of the harbour rapidly, in case of emergency. That entry point later became the passe Cabart-Danneville. The breakwaters also resisted demolition by the Germans in 1944 during the battle of Cherbourg.

Delafield, Richard Major General 1798 - 1873
Delafield was a United States Army officer for 52 years. He served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy for 12 years. At the start of the American Civil War, then Colonel Delafield helped equip and send volunteers from New York to the Union Army. He also was in command of defences around New York harbor from 1861 to April 1864. On April 22, 1864, he was promoted to Brigadier General in the Regular Army of the United States and Chief of Engineers. On March 8, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Delafield for appointment to the grade of brevet major general in the Regular Army, to rank from March 13, 1865, and the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on May 4, 1866, reconfirmed due to a technicality on July 14, 1866. He retired from the US Army on August 8, 1866. He later served on two commissions relating to improvements to Boston Harbor and to lighthouses. He also served as a regent of the Smithsonian Institution.
Delafield served as assistant engineer in the construction of Hampton Roads defences from 1819–1824 and was in charge of fortifications and surveys in the Mississippi River delta area in 1824-1832. While superintendent of repair work on the Cumberland Road east of the Ohio River, he designed and built Dunlaps Creek Bridge in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, the first cast-iron tubular-arch bridge in the United States. Commissioned a major of engineers in July 1838, he was appointed superintendent of the Military Academy after the fire of 1838 and served till 1845. He designed the new buildings and the new cadet uniform that first displayed the castle insignia. He superintended the construction of coast defences for New York Harbor from 1846 to 1855.
In the beginning of 1855, Delafield was appointed by the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis a head of the board of officers, later called The Delafield Commission, and sent to Europe to study the European military. The board included Captain George B. McClellan and Major Alfred Mordecai. They inspected the state of the military in Great Britain, Germany, the Austrian Empire, France, Belgium, and Russia, and served as military observers during the Crimean War. After his return in April 1856, Delafield submitted a report which was later published as a book by Congress, Report on the Art of War in Europe in 1854, 1855, and 1856. The book was suppressed during the American Civil War due to fears that it would be instructive to Confederate engineers as it contained multiple drawings and descriptions of military fortifications.
Delafield served as superintendent of the Military Academy again in 1856-1861. In January 1861, he was succeeded by Captain Pierre G. T. Beauregard, who was dismissed shortly after Beauregards home state of Louisiana seceded from the Union, and Delafield returned as superintendent serving until March 1, 1861. In the beginning of the Civil War he advised the governor of New York Edwin D. Morgan during the volunteer force creation. Then, in 1861–1864, he was put in charge of New York Harbor defences, including Governors Island and Fort at Sandy Hook. On May 19, 1864, he was commissioned a brigadier-general after replacing Joseph Gilbert Totten, who had died, as the Chief of Engineers, United States Army Corps of Engineers, on April 22, 1864. He stayed in charge of the Bureau of Engineers of the War Department until his retirement on August 8, 1866. On March 8, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Delafield for appointment to the grade of brevet major general in the Regular Army of the United States, to rank from March 13, 1865, and the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on May 4, 1866 and reconfirmed it due to a technicality on July 14, 1866.After retirement Delafield served as a regent of the Smithsonian Institution and a member of the Lighthouse Board. He died in Washington, D.C. on November 5, 1873.

$125.00 USD
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1772 Gibson & Sayer Large Antique Map of America

1772 Gibson & Sayer Large Antique Map of America

  • Title : A New Map of the Whole Continent of America. Divided Into North and South and West Indies, with a Descriptive Account of the European Possessions, as Settled by the Definitive Treaty of Peace Conducted at Paris Feby 10th 1763...Compiled from Mr D Anville...1772
  • Ref #:  80111
  • Size: 47 1/2in x 42 1/2in (1.20m x 1.08m)
  • Date : 1772
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description: 
This rare, very large, hand coloured, original antique map of North & South America - resulting from the outcome of the French & Indian War in North America & the Paris Treaty of 1763 - by John Gibson, was published by Robert Sayer London, in 1772.
Superbly detailed, impressive in size and beauty of design, with geographical detail based on the American maps by the famous French cartographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon D'Anville, along with recent Spanish explorations in northern California.
The first edition (1763) and second edition (1772) of this map are extremely scarce and hard to find as many of these were working maps and would have been put to use by both the Military and Government. Other editions with revisions were published in 1777, 1783, 1786 & 1794 which emphasised the post revolutionary break up of North America, without the L&R text boxes. 
The Treaty of Paris was signed between Britain, France, and Spain, reshaping the map of North America and ending the colonial phase of the Seven Years' War. France, defeated in the New World and frustrated in its war against Prussia, lost all claims to Canada and gave Louisiana to Spain, while Britain received Spanish Florida, Upper Canada, and various French holdings overseas. France's adventure in India also came to an end, ensuring the colonial supremacy of Britain in coming decades. Five days after the Treaty of Paris, the Treaty of Hubertusburg was signed, acknowledging Prussia's right to the Polish province of Silesia, a claim that seven years earlier had started the war. 

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy & stable
Paper color: - White
Age of map color: - Original & later  
Colors used: - Yellow, green, red  
General color appearance: - Authentic   
Paper size: - 47 1/2in x 42 1/2in (1.20m x 1.08m)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Folds & joins as issued
Verso: - Light age toning

Background: This is John Gibson's celebrated map of the New World, showing the European Possessions and the recently recognized boundaries of North & South as decreed by the 1763 Treaty of Paris. The text box on the left side of the map outlines some of the articles of the Paris Treaty of 1763. The text box on the right hand side shows the possessions of each European Power in North & South America. 
The map is one of the earliest obtainable English language wall maps of  Continental America.  It was periodically updated during the later part of the 18th Century, first to include the information and boundaries established at the conclusion of the French and Indian War in 1763, and later, after the American Revolution and the establishment of the United States.
The map provides a stark contrast between the known and unknown regions, with the eastern parts of North America quite well understood, whereas the mythical River of the West is still shown, seeking a continuous water course from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The map also includes an excellent treatment of South America at the end of the Spanish Colonial empire, based in part on the recently published Cruz Cano y Olmedilla map of South America (Mapa Geográfico De America Meridional . . .).
Although the United States extends to the Mississippi, the province of Quebec appears to encroach on U.S. territory around the Great Lakes. Details of north-western North America are just beginning to emerge. The map shows a peninsular California, a Chinese colony ("Fou Sang") in British Columbia, and two possible locations for a "River of the West" (one with its source at Pike's lake; the other, further north at Lake Winnipeg).
The South America sheet includes an inset map of northern North America to Baffin's Bay, showing Greenland as part of the North American mainland.
The beautiful title cartouche is a baroque fantasy with New World flora, both temperate and tropical, beaver, alligator, and an Indian chieftain's headdress. (Ref: M&B; Tooley)

John Gibson 1750 - 1792
An English cartographer, geographer, draughtsman and engraver. Recognized as an important late eighteenth-century British cartographer, a contemporary of Jacques-Nicolas Bellin and a skilled engraver. Spent most of his life in prison because of several debts, however he produced thousands of maps, including large scale maps of America along with his best known work in 1758 called the pocket atlas Atlas Minimus.
He also worked for the Gentleman's Magazine for which engraved different decorative maps who also published his own work in The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure, The Universal Museum and The Universal Traveller.

 

$3,750.00 USD
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1756 Nicolas Bellin Antique Map of the City of Boston & Charlestown w/ Harbor

1756 Nicolas Bellin Antique Map of the City of Boston & Charlestown w/ Harbor

  • Title : Plan De La Ville De Boston Et Ses Environs Renvoy pour la Ville de Boston...
  • Date : 1756
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Ref:  93122
  • Size: 15 1/2in x 10 1/2in (395mm x 270mm)

Description:
This original hand coloured 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.

Beautifully hand coloured 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: - Original & later
Colors used: - Blue, pink, red, green, yellow
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 15 1/2in x 10 1/2in (395mm x 270mm)
Plate size: - 11 1/2in x 7 1/2in (285mm x 190mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

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.

$425.00 USD
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1690 Nicolas Visscher Antique Map of Great Britain & Ireland

1690 Nicolas Visscher Antique Map of Great Britain & Ireland

  • Title : Magnae Britanniae Tabula Angliam, Scotiam, et Hiberniam Continens in Lucem Edita Fer Nicolaum Visscher
  • Size: 23in x 19 1/2in (585mm x 490mm)
  • Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
  • Date : 1690
  • Ref #:  93002

Description:
This large original hand coloured copper-plate engraved antique map of Great Britain & Ireland was published by Nicholas Visscher II in 1690.

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: - 23in x 19 1/2in (585mm x 490mm)
Plate size: - 21in x 18 1/2in (535mm x 485mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm) 

Imperfections:
Margins: - Small bottom left section of margin into scale restored
Plate area: - Light age toning
Verso: - Age toning

Background: 
In 1558 Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in the midst of a fast changing world. In 1563 a nineteen sheet map, copies of which survive only in manuscript form, was completed by Laurence Nowell, and no doubt, the issue of Mercator\'s large-scale map of the British Isles in 1564 had an important influence on the thought of the period. A few years later a national survey was commissioned privately, although probably at the instigation of Lord Burghley, the Lord Treasurer, but subsequently was completed with royal encouragement. The outcome was Christopher Saxton\'s Atlas of EngIand and Wales, started about 1570 and published in 1579 - the first printed set of county maps and the first countrywide atlas on such a splendid scale produced anywhere. A Welsh antiquarian, Humphrey Lhuyd completed a set of surveys that were even more successful than Saxton in which he had produced fine manuscript maps of England and Wales which were used by Ortelius in editions of his Atlas from 1573 onwards.
The earliest maps of the 17th century, attributed to William Smith of the College of Heralds, covered only twelve counties based on Saxton/Norden and were presumably intended to be part of a complete new atlas. They were printed in the Low Countries in 1602-3 and were soon followed by maps for the Latin edition of Camden\'s Britannia dated 1607. In 1610-11 the first edition of John Speed\'s famous county Atlas The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine was published and immediately replaced Saxton\'s in popular appeal. Although Speed assembled much of his material from the earlier works of Saxton, Norden and others, a considerable part of the up-to-date information, especially relating to the inset town plans depicted on his maps, was obtained first hand. The maps undoubtedly owed much of their popularity to the splendid engravings of high quality made in the workshops in Amsterdam of Jodocus Hondius to whom Speed sent his manuscripts, the plates subsequently being returned to London for printing.
In 1645, Volume IV of the famous Blaeu World Atlas covering the counties of England and Wales was published in Amsterdam. These maps have always been esteemed as superb examples of engraving and design, the calligraphy being particularly splendid, but nevertheless they were nearly all based on Saxton and Speed and added little to geographical knowledge.
Not until the latter part of the century do we find an English map maker of originality with the capacity to put new ideas into practice. John Ogilby, one of the more colourful figures associated with cartography, started life as a dancing master and finished as King\'s Cosmographer and Geographic Printer. After publishing a small number of county maps, somewhat on the lines of John Norden he issued in 1675 the Britannia, the first practical series of detailed maps of the post roads of England and Wales on a standard scale of 1,760 yards to the mile. Up to the end of the century and beyond, reprints and revisions of Saxton\'s and Speed\'s atlases continued to appear and the only other noteworthy county maps were Richard Blome\'s Britannia (1673), John Overton\'s Atlas (c. 1670) and Robert Morden\'s maps for an English translation of Camden\'s Britannia published in 1695.
Another noted cartographer of the day was Captain Greenvile Collins, and of his work in surveying the coasts of Great Britain culminating in the issue in 1693 of the Great Britain\'s Coasting Pilot. Apart from these charts, English cartographers published during the century a number of world atlases. Speed was the first Englishman to produce a world atlas with the issue in 1627 of his A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World. Other atlases appeared later in the century by Peter Heylin, John Seller, William Berry, Moses Pitt and Richard Blome, whilst Ogilby found time to issue maps of Africa, America and Asia. Far more important, from the purely scientific point of view, was the work of Edmund Halley, Astronomer Royal, who compiled and issued meteorological and magnetic charts in 1688 and 1701 respectively.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Dutch map trade was finally in decline, the French in the ascendant and the English to a great extent still dominated by Saxton and Speed except, as we have shown, in the spheres of sea charts and road maps. There were atlases by John Senex, the Bowles family, Emanuel and Thomas Bowen, Thomas Badeslade and the unique bird\'s-eye perspective views of the counties, The British Monarchy by George Bickham. In 1750-60 Bowen and Kitchin\'s The Large English Atlas containing maps on a rather larger scale than hitherto was published.
In 1759 the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce offered an award of £100 for the best original surveys on this scale and by the end of the century about thirty counties had been re-surveyed. These maps, many of which formed, in later years, the basis for the first issues of county maps by the Ordnance Survey Office were not only decorative but a tremendous improvement geographically on earlier local maps. As a consequence, the skills and expertise of the new-style cartographers soon enabled them to cover the world as well as the domestic market. Thomas Jefferys was such a man; he was responsible for a number of the new 1 in. to 1 mile county surveys and he issued an edition of Saxton\'s much battered 200-year-old plates of the county maps, but he is better known for many fine maps of North America and the West Indies. His work was continued on the same lines by William Faden, trading as Faden and Jefferys. Other publishers such as Sayer and Bennett and their successors Laurie and Whittle published a prodigious range of maps, charts and atlases in the second half of the century. A major influence at this time was John Cary who, apart from organizing the first re-survey of post roads since Ogilby and subsequently printing the noted Travellers\' Companion, was a prolific publisher of atlases and maps of every kind of all parts of the world. After starting work with Cary, and taking part in the new road survey, Aaron Arrowsmith set up in his own business and went on to issue splendid large-scale maps of many parts of the world. Both Cary\'s and Arrowsmith\'s plates were used by other publishers until far into the next century and, in turn, their work was taken up and developed by James Wyld (Elder and Younger) and Tallis and Co.
Later into the 19th century some of the better known cartographers and publishers were by Henry Teesdale (1829-30), Christopher and John Greenwood, surveyors, Thomas Moule, a writer on heraldry and antiques (1830-36) and John Walker (1837) but by about the middle of the century few small-scale publishers survived and their business passed into the hands of large commercial concerns such as Bartholomews of Edinburgh and Philips of London who continue to this day. (Ref: Shirley; Tooley; M&B)

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1754 Milton, Cleveley, Canot Antique Plan View Portsmouth Dockyards, HMS Victory

1754 Milton, Cleveley, Canot Antique Plan View Portsmouth Dockyards, HMS Victory

  • Title : A Geometrical Plan West Elevation of His Majestys Dock Yard Near Portsmouth with part of the Common...Thomas Milton Surv...Published according to the Act of Parliament April 29th 1754.
  • Size: 26in x 19 1/2in (660mm x 495mm)
  • Condition: (C) Fair Condition
  • Date : 1754
  • Ref #:  93115

Description:
This large original hand coloured copper plate engraved antique plan and view of His Majestys Dockyard Plymouth by the artist John Cleveley was engraved by the French engraver Pierre Charles Canot and published as one of six engravings in Thomas Milton\'s Royal Dockyards in 1754 - dated.
The plan/view has had some previous damage with the bottom left section 9in x 4in restored with loss to bottom corner, as well as a small section of the cartouche and margins. The plan has been mounted on contemporary heavy paper. Still a very nice piece despite the restoration.

The plan of the dockyards would have been undertaken by Canot whereas the views of the ship-yard is by John Cleveley the Elder. Several ships engraved around the decorative border including a listing HMS Victory at the top.

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: - 26in x 19 1/2in (660mm x 495mm)
Plate size: - 26in x 19 1/2in (660mm x 495mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (10mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Bottom corner loss, small loss top right margin
Plate area: - Restoration left section 9in x 4in and small section of cartouche
Verso: - Mounted on contemporary heavy paper

Background: 
One of a series of views of the six Royal Dockyards, which were by the mid-eighteenth century the world\'s largest industrial complex and the state\'s biggest investment. These engravings present the dockyards as orderly, efficient, and rational; each makes reference to the specific functions of the dockyard represented, which depended in part on location. When France replaced Holland as Britain\'s major rival in the late seventeenth century, Plymouth and Portsmouth became the more strategically significant yards, serving as naval bases and fleet rendezvous for campaigns in the Atlantic and the Channel respectively. Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth, where the fleets moored during the winter or while on reserve, became employed more in repairs than ship building. The cartouche on the left side of this print describes the content of the vignettes bordering the primary image. It is inscribed as follows: References to Eight of the Twelve Capital Ships taken from the French the 3rd of May and 17th of October 1747 as Drawn in the Border. Thus, rather than illustrating scenes in a ships “biography” (as is typical for other prints in this series), the ships shown in the vignettes bordering this print serve as a record of the activities of the dockyard at a particular moment.

Pierre-Charles Canot .1710–77 was a French engraver who spent most of his career in England.
Canot was born in France in about 1710. In 1740 he moved to England, where he lived there the rest of his life. He was elected an Associate Engraver of the Royal Academy in 1770, and died at Kentish Town, then just outside London, in 1777. He engraved a large number of landscapes, sea-pieces, and other subjects after artists including Jan van Goyen, Lorrain and Jean Pillement. Joseph Strutt believed that his best prints were some large plates of maritime subjects after the works of Richard Paton.

Cleveley, John 1712 - 1777
John Cleveley the Elder was an English marine artist. and was born in Southwark. He was not from an artistic background, and his father intended him to follow the family trade of joinery, so he set up as a carpenter or shipwright in around 1742 at the Deptford Dockyard. Continuing his work in that area throughout his life (indeed, he is referred to as ‘carpenter belonging to His Majesty’s Ship Victory, in the pay of His Majestys Navy’ in letters of administration granted by the Admiralty in 1778 to his widow, probably when she was first fitting out), from about 1745 he also worked as a painter, mostly ship portraits, dockyard scenes of shipbuilding and launches, and some other marine views. They combined his knowledge of shipbuilding with accurate architectural and topographical detail. Apparently mostly self-taught, it is possible that dockyard ship-painters also gave him some training in this area. He toured East Anglia, and produced some paintings from notes made on that trip.

$475.00 USD
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1720 JB Homann Large Antique Map of Scotland

1720 JB Homann Large Antique Map of Scotland

  • Title : Magnae Britannia Pars Septentrionalis Regnum Scotiae....Johan. Bapt. Homanno
  • Ref #:  33663
  • Size: 24in x 20in (610mm x 515mm)
  • Date : 1720
  • Condition: (A) Very Good Condition

Description:
This large original hand coloured copper plate engraved antique map of Scotalnd by JB Homann firm was published in 1720.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Blue, red, yellow
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 24in x 20in (610mm x 515mm)
Plate size: - 23in x 19in (585mm x 485mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light soiling
Plate area: - Light soiling and dis-colouration in 4 small areas of image
Verso: - Backed onto contemporary paper

Background: 
The Treaty of Perpetual Peace was signed in 1502 by James IV of Scotland and Henry VII of England. James married Henrys daughter, Margaret Tudor. James invaded England in support of France under the terms of the Auld Alliance and became the last British monarch to die in battle, at Flodden in 1513. In 1560, the Treaty of Edinburgh brought an end to the Anglo-French conflict and recognized the Protestant Elizabeth I as Queen of England. The Parliament of Scotland met and immediately adopted the Scots Confession, which signaled the Scottish Reformations sharp break from papal authority and Catholic teaching. The Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots was forced to abdicate in 1567.
In 1603, James VI, King of Scots inherited the thrones of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland in the Union of the Crowns, and moved to London. The military was strengthened, allowing the imposition of royal authority on the western Highland clans. The 1609 Statutes of Iona compelled the cultural integration of Hebridean clan leaders. With the exception of a short period under the Protectorate, Scotland remained a separate state, but there was considerable conflict between the crown and the Covenanters over the form of church government. The Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 saw the overthrow of King James VII of Scotland and II of England by the English Parliament in favour of William III and Mary II In common with countries such as France, Norway, Sweden and Finland, Scotland experienced famines during the 1690s. Mortality, reduced childbirths and increased emigration reduced the population of parts of the country about 10-15%.
In 1698, the Company of Scotland attempted a project to secure a trading colony on the Isthmus of Panama. Although it received a huge investment, the Darien scheme failed, partially due to English hostility. Along with the threat of an English invasion, the resulting bankruptcies played a leading role in convincing the Scots elite to back a union with England. On 22 July 1706, the Treaty of Union was agreed between representatives of the Scots Parliament and the Parliament of England. The following year twin Acts of Union were passed by both parliaments to create the united Kingdom of Great Britain with effect from 1 May 1707 with popular opposition and anti-union riots in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and elsewhere.
With trade tariffs with England now abolished, trade blossomed, especially with Colonial America. The clippers belonging to the Glasgow Tobacco Lords were the fastest ships on the route to Virginia. Until the American War of Independence in 1776, Glasgow was the worlds premier tobacco port, dominating world trade. The deposed Jacobite Stuart claimants had remained popular in the Highlands and north-east, particularly amongst non-Presbyterians, including Roman Catholics and Episcopalian Protestants. However, two major Jacobite risings launched in 1715 and 1745 failed to remove the House of Hanover from the British throne. The threat of the Jacobite movement to the United Kingdom and its monarchs effectively ended at the Battle of Culloden, Great Britains last pitched battle.
The Scottish Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution turned Scotland into an intellectual, commercial and industrial powerhouse so much so Voltaire said We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation. With the demise of Jacobitism and the advent of the Union, thousands of Scots, mainly Lowlanders, took up numerous positions of power in politics, civil service, the army and navy, trade, economics, colonial enterprises and other areas across the nascent British Empire. Historian Neil Davidson notes after 1746 there was an entirely new level of participation by Scots in political life, particularly outside Scotland. Davidson also states far from being peripheral to the British economy, Scotland – or more precisely, the Lowlands – lay at its core. In the Highlands, clan chiefs gradually started to think of themselves more as commercial landlords than leaders of their people. These social and economic changes included the first phase of the Highland Clearances and, ultimately, the demise of the clan system. In the last third of the 18th century, Highlanders began to migrate seasonally to Lowland cities for work, and emigration to the New World from both the Highlands and Lowlands became commonplace, even as the population increased

$325.00 USD
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1855 A D Bache Rare Antique Map, Views Farallon Islands San Francisco California

1855 A D Bache Rare Antique Map, Views Farallon Islands San Francisco California

  • Title : US Coast Survey A D Buache Superintendant Sketch of South Farallon Island Pacific Ocean...1855
  • Size: 15 1/2in x 14in (395mm x 355mm)
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Date : 1855
  • Ref #:  93011

Description:
This large rare, original antique lithograph early map of Farallon Islands, off the coast of San Francisco (with views of the islands) California by Alexander Dallas Bache (great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin) in 1855 - dated - was published by the official chart-maker of the United States, the office of The US Coast Survey.

The Office of the Coast Survey, founded in 1807 by President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of Commerce Albert Gallatin, is the oldest scientific organization in the U.S. Federal Government. Jefferson created the Survey of the Coast, as it was then called, in response to a need for accurate navigational charts of the new nation\'s coasts and harbors.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 15 1/2in x 14in (395mm x 355mm)
Plate size: - 15 1/2in x 14in (395mm x 355mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Folds as issued, light age toning
Verso: - Some folds re-enforced with archival tape

Background: 
The Farallon Islands, or Farallones (from the Spanish farallón meaning \"pillar\" or \"sea cliff\"), are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The islands are also sometimes referred to by mariners as the Devil\'s Teeth Islands, in reference to the many treacherous underwater shoals in their vicinity.[2] The islands lie 30 miles (48 km) outside the Golden Gate and 20 miles (32 km) south of Point Reyes, and are visible from the mainland on clear days. The islands are part of the City and County of San Francisco. The only inhabited portion of the islands is on Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI), where researchers from Point Blue Conservation Science and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stay.

U.S. Coast Survey (Office of Coast Survey)
The Office of Coast Survey is the official chart-maker of the United States. Set up in 1807, it is one of the U.S. governments oldest scientific organizations. In 1878 it was given the name of Coast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS). In 1970 it became part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The agency was established in 1807 when President Thomas Jefferson signed the document entitled An act to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States. While the bills objective was specific—to produce nautical charts—it reflected larger issues of concern to the new nation: national boundaries, commerce, and defence.
The early years were difficult. Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, who was eventually to become the agencys first superintendent, went to England to collect scientific instruments but was unable to return through the duration of the War of 1812. After his return, he worked on a survey of the New York Harbor in 1817, but Congress stepped in to suspend the work because of tensions between civilian and military control of the agency. After several years under the control of the U.S. Army, the Survey of the Coast was reestablished in 1832, and President Andrew Jackson appointed Hassler as superintendent.
The U.S. Coast Survey was a civilian agency but, from the beginning, members of the Navy and Army were detailed to service with the Survey, and Navy ships were also detailed to its use. In general, army officers worked on topographic surveys on the land and maps based on the surveys, while navy officers worked on hydrographic surveys in coastal waters.
Alexander Dallas Bache, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was the second Coast Survey superintendent. Bache was a physicist, scientist, and surveyor who established the first magnetic observatory and served as the first president of the National Academy of Sciences. Under Bache, Coast Survey quickly applied its resources to the Union cause during the Civil War. In addition to setting up additional lithographic presses to produce the thousands of charts required by the Navy and other vessels, Bache made a critical decision to send Coast Survey parties to work with blockading squadrons and armies in the field, producing hundreds of maps and charts. Bache detailed these activities in his annual reports to Congress.
Coast Survey cartographer Edwin Hergesheimer created the map showing the density of the slave population in the Southern states.
Bache was also one of four members of the governments Blockade Strategy Board, planning strategy to essentially strangle the South, economically and militarily. On April 16, 1861, President Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring the blockade of ports from South Carolina to Texas. Baches Notes on the Coast provided valuable information for Union naval forces.
Maps were of paramount importance in wartime:
It is certain that accurate maps must form the basis of well-conducted military operations, and that the best time to procure them is not when an attack is impending, or when the army waits, but when there is no hindrance to, or pressure upon, the surveyors. That no coast can be effectively attacked, defended, or blockaded without accurate maps and charts, has been fully proved by the events of the last two years, if, indeed, such a proposition required practical proof.
— Alexander Dallas Bache, 1862 report.
Coast Survey attracted some of the best and brightest scientists and naturalists. It commissioned the naturalist Louis Agassiz to conduct the first scientific study of the Florida reef system. James McNeill Whistler, who went on to paint the iconic Whistlers Mother, was a Coast Survey engraver. The naturalist John Muir was a guide and artist on Survey of the 39th Parallel across the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah.
The agencys men and women (women professionals were hired as early as 1845) led scientific and engineering activities through the decades. In 1926, they started production of aeronautical charts. During the height of the Great Depression, Coast and Geodetic Survey organized surveying parties and field offices that employed over 10,000 people, including many out-of-work engineers.
In World War II, C&GS sent over 1,000 civilian members and more than half of its commissioned officers to serve as hydrographers, artillery surveyors, cartographers, army engineers, intelligence officers, and geophysicists in all theaters of the war. Civilians on the home front produced over 100 million maps and charts for the Allied Forces. Eleven members of the C&GS gave their lives during the war.

Alexander Dallas Bache 1806 – 1867 was an American physicist, scientist, and surveyor who erected coastal fortifications and conducted a detailed survey to map the mid-eastern United States coastline. Originally an army engineer, he later became Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey, and built it into the foremost scientific institution in the country before the Civil War.
Alexander Bache was born in Philadelphia, the son of Richard Bache, Jr., and Sophia Burrell Dallas Bache. He came from a prominent family as he was the nephew of Vice-President George M. Dallas and naval hero Alexander J. Dallas. He was the grandson of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Dallas and was the great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin.
Bache was a professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania from 1828 to 1841 and again from 1842 to 1843. He spent 1836–1838 in Europe on behalf of the trustees of what became Girard College; he was named president of the college after his return. Abroad, he examined European education systems, and on his return he published a valuable report. From 1839 to 1842, he served as the first president of Central High School of Philadelphia, one of the oldest public high schools in the United States.
In 1843, on the death of Professor Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, Bache was appointed superintendent of the United States Coast Survey. He convinced the United States Congress of the value of this work and, by means of the liberal aid it granted, he completed the mapping of the whole coast by a skillful division of labor and the erection of numerous observing stations. In addition, magnetic and meteorological data were collected. Bache served as head of the Coast Survey for 24 years (until his death).

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1574 Braun & Hogenberg Antique Map Munchen, Ingolstadt, . Freising, Nordligen, Regensburg, Straubing, Germany

1574 Braun & Hogenberg Antique Map Munchen, Ingolstadt, . Freising, Nordligen, Regensburg, Straubing, Germany

  • Title : Monacum (Munchen). Ingostadium (Ingolstadt). Frisingensis (Freising). Nordlinga (Nordligen). Ratispona (Regensburg). Stravbinga (Straubing)
  • Size:  21in x 16in (545mm x 410mm)
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Date : 1574
  • Ref #:  40871

Description:
This original copper-plate engraved antique of 6 x maps, birds eye city views of Munchen, Ingolstadt, . Freising, Nordligen, Regensburg, Straubing, Germany was published by Georg Braun & Frans Hogenberg for the 1574 atlas of town plans Civiates Orbis Terrarum intended as a companion to Abraham Ortelius\\\'s master Atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum published in 1570.

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 16in (545mm x 410mm)
Plate size: - 19in x 13 1/2in (480mm x 340mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

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

Background: 
Below is the translations to the text on the verso, of each city.

Munich is a splendid city in Bavaria, situated on the Isar. It has a favourable location and possesses a magnificent palace, in which the Bavarian princes hold court in our own day.

Ingolstadt: In the beginning Ingolstadt was not exactly a large town, almost rectangular in shape, and within an area marked by the three ancient towers that still stand today: the Glockenturm in the cemetry of the minster of Our Lady, the Striegelturm beside the gaol and the Judenturm. The old castle is also a clear indication of this. Ingolstadt was first expanded in 1312, when it grew to about double the size and took on a shape resembling that of an egg, apart from a few bulges in the southern part of the town.

Freising, the episcopal city in Bavaria, [...] is said to have been founded at the time of Roman rule, which extended from the Danube to the Alps, on a favourable site by the Moosach, which flows into the Isar close by. Beatus Rhenanus records that in the library of St Corbinian\'s he found a very beautiful book containing the four Gospels in Frankish.

Nördlingen formerly lay on the Hohe Hart hill, above the present city, where the old parish church of St Emmeran can still be seen. This town burned down in 1238 and due to the lack of water many lost their lives. Afterwards it was rebuilt in the valley beside the Eger, and ever since then the waters of the river have run through it.

Regensburg is a magnificent and ancient city in Bavaria on the banks of the Danube, at a favourably situated point where four rivers converge. For the Laber and the Naab flow into the Danube above the city and the Regen below it. [...] Emperor Arnulf expanded the city and most importantly linked it to the settlement on the opposite bank by means of a sturdy stone bridge with many arches.

Straubing is a town in Bavaria that was founded by Duke Ludwig in 1218. The Danube runs near the town and thereby lends it importance.

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1653 Matthaus Merian Antique Map of Scandinavia Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland

1653 Matthaus Merian Antique Map of Scandinavia Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland

  • Title : Tabula exantissima Reguora Sueciae et Norvegiae...Andcea Buze o Sueco
  • Date : 1635
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Ref:  35504
  • Size: 14 1/4in x 13 1/4in (360mm x 335mm)

Description:
This fine original copper-plate engraved antique map of Scandinavia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland & Baltic States by Matthaus Merian was published in Theatrum Europaeum in 1635.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 14 1/4in x 13 1/4in (360mm x 335mm)
Plate size: - 14in x 13in (355mm x 325mm)
Margins: - Min 1/4in (5mm)

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

Background: 
Before the fifteenth century the people of Southern Europe had little geographical knowledge of the Scandinavian World except from sketchy detail shown in the Catalan Atlas (1375) and on a number of \\\" portolani\\\" embracing Denmark and the southern tip of Norway. It was not until 1427 that a manuscript map prepared about that time by Claudius Clavus (b.1388) a Dane who spent some time in Rome, made available to scholars a tolerable outline of the northern countries and Greenland. That was to remain the best map available for the rest of the century and it was used as the basis for maps of Scandinavia in early printed editions of Ptolemy. Others by Nicolaus Cusanus (1491) and Ehrhard Etzlaub (c. 1492) followed but, needless to say, these are extremely rare; even the later maps by Olaus Magnus and Marcus Jordan, where they have survived at all , are known only by a very few examples. In fact, apart from the rare appearance of an early Ptolemy map, the oldest of Scandinavia which a collector is likely to find are those of Munster\\\'s Cosmograhy first published in 1544. In the following centuries the few maps and charts complied in Scandinavia were usually published in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Paris or Nuremberg, the most important maps often being incorporated in the major Dutch, French & German Atlases. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)

Merian, Matthaus 1593 - 1650
Merian was a Swiss-born engraver who worked in Frankfurt for most of his career, where he also ran a publishing house. He was a member of the patrician Basel Merian family.
Born in Basel, Merian learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zürich. He next worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy, and Paris, before returning to Basel in 1615. The following year he moved to Frankfurt, Germany where he worked for the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry, who was the son of renowned engraver and traveler Theodor de Bry.
In 1617, Merian married Maria Magdalena de Bry, daughter of the publisher, and was for a time associated with the de Bry publishing house. In 1620 they moved back to Basel, but three years later returned to Frankfurt. They had four daughters and three sons, including Matthäus Merian the Younger. Maria Magdalena de Bry died in 1645 and the following year Matthäus married Johanna Catharina Hein. Five years later, Matthäus died, leaving his wife with two small children, Anna Maria Sibylla Merian (born 1647) who later became a pioneering naturalist and illustrator and a son, Maximilian, who died before his third birthday.
In 1623 Merian took over the publishing house of his father-in-law after de Brys death. In 1626 he became a citizen of Frankfurt and could henceforth work as an independent publisher. He spent most of his working life in Frankfurt.
Early in his life, he had created detailed town plans in his unique style, e.g. a plan of Basel (1615) and a plan of Paris (1615). With Martin Zeiler (1589 - 1661), a German geographer, and later (circa 1640) with his own son, Matthäus Merian (der Jüngere, i.e.the Younger or Jr.) (1621 - 1687), he produced a series of Topographia. The 21-volume set was collectively known as the Topographia Germaniae. It includes numerous town plans and views, as well as maps of most countries and a World Map—it was such a popular work that it was re-issued in many editions. He also took over and completed the later parts and editions of the Grand Voyages and Petits Voyages, originally started by de Bry in 1590.
Merians work inspired the Suecia Antiqua et Hodierna by Erik Dahlberg. The German travel magazine Merian is named after him.
He was also noted for the finesse of his alchemical illustrations, in books such as the Musaeum Hermeticum (1678) and Atalanta Fugiens (1618).
Matthäus Merian died after several years of illness in 1650 in Langenschwalbach, near Wiesbaden.
After his death, his sons Matthäus Jr. and Caspar took over the publishing house. They continued publishing the Topographia Germaniae and the Theatrum Europaeum under the name Merian Erben (i.e. Merian Heirs).

$275.00 USD
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1760 Vue D Optique Antique Print View of London, Old London Bridge to St Pauls

1760 Vue D Optique Antique Print View of London, Old London Bridge to St Pauls

Description:
This original hand coloured copper-plate engraved antique print, a general view of London from the Thames across old London Bridge to St Pauls, was published bewteen 1750 & 1798 in s series of Perspective views, or Vues d optique

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: - 16 1/2in x 11 3/4in (425mm x 295mm)
Plate size: - 16 1/2in x 11 3/4in (425mm x 295mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Blue colour spot top left
Verso: - None

Background: 
A series of perspective views, or vues d optique, a special type of popular print published in Europe during the eighteenth century. These prints were a form of entertainment meant to be seen through devices called optical machines, optiques, zograscopes or peepshows. These views are some of the most distinctive and interesting images of the eighteenth century, and their striking use of lines of perspective and bright original color makes them as visually delightful as they are historically fascinating.

Vue d Optique
The term a vue d optique or aperspective view is used for describing a very special genre of antique print. Originating in England it became widely produced in Europe during the second half of the 18th century. Augsburg, Paris, Bassano and several other places became centers for the production of these interesting, fascinating engravings.
Aperspective views are usually views of cities around the world (but also of other subject matters, historical, Biblical etc.). These were shown in apeep boxes which in turn were usually set up by travelling owners of such viewing devices on markets throughout Europe. People could, for a certain amount of money, look into a peep box and view these perspective views through a magnifying lense which, at the same time, gave the viewer the impression of three dimensional perception. Well-to-do people bought such viewing machines for their families and began collecting the vue doptique engravings showing them at home like slide show would be shown.
Perspective view prints were usually coloured quite boldly before they were sold. Black and white samples are the exception and rather rare. They also have more or less the same format (size), because they had to fit the peep boxes. The title of a view was not always, but quite frequently printed in several languages and often repeated above the view in inverted writing (which was corrected by the lens for the viewer).
The value of perspective view prints rapidly increased, when modern day collectors discovered the genre and began to be interested in collecting the prints. Some large collections of prints and viewing devices have been sold in some of the big auction houses with great success.
Since perspective view prints were actually used almost daily by moving them in and out of viewing boxes, they often show some wear and tear, unless they were handled with much care by private possessors. Prints are in good condition unles otherwise mentioned. A few minor spots and signs of wear are typical of antique prints.

$475.00 USD
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1719 Chatelain Large Antique Print Succession of Egyptian Pharaohs from 1500BC

1719 Chatelain Large Antique Print Succession of Egyptian Pharaohs from 1500BC

  • Title : Succession Des Rois D Egipte Selon Leurs Diverses Races (Succession Of The Kings Of Egipte According To Their Various Races)
  • Size: 20in x 17 1/2in (510mm x 440mm)
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Date : 1719
  • Ref #:  50652-1

Description:
This large original copper-plate engraved antique print showing the known succession of Egyptian Kings going back to 1500BC was published by Henri Abraham Chatelain in 1719, in his famous Atlas Historique.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 20in x 17 1/2in (510mm x 440mm)
Plate size: - 17 1/2in x 15in (440mm x 380mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

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

Background: 
The pharaohs were rulers of Ancient Egypt dating from the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt during the Early Dynastic Period by Narmer approximately 3100 BC. Although the specific term Pharaoh was not used by their contemporaries until the rule of Merneptah of the 19th dynasty, c. 1200 BC, the style of titulature of the rulers of Egypt remained relatively constant, initially featuring a Horus name, a Sedge and Bee (nswt-bjtj) name and a Two Ladies (nbtj) name, with the additional Golden Horus, nomen and prenomen titles being added successively during later dynasties.
Egypt remained continually governed by native pharaohs for approximately 2500 years until it was conquered by the Kingdom of Kush in 656 BC, whose rulers adopted the traditional pharaonic titulature for themselves. Following the Kushite conquest, Egypt would first see another period of independent native rule before being conquered by the Achaemenid Empire, whose rulers also adopted the title of Pharaoh. The last native Pharaoh of Egypt was Nectanebo II, who was Pharaoh before the Achaemenids conquered Egypt for a second time.
Achaemenid rule over Egypt came to an end through the conquests of Alexander the Great in 332 BC, after which it was ruled by the Hellenic Pharaohs of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Their rule, and the independence of Egypt, came to an end when Egypt became a province of Rome in 30 BC. Augustus and subsequent Roman Emperors were styled as Pharaohs when in Egypt up until the reign of Maximinus Daia in 314 AD.

$125.00 USD
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1855 US Coast Survey & A D Bache Antique Map of Drakes Bay or Puerto de Los Reyes, California

1855 US Coast Survey & A D Bache Antique Map of Drakes Bay or Puerto de Los Reyes, California

  • Title : US Coast Survey A D Bache Superintendant Preliminary Survey of Point Reyes and Drakes Bay California...By W P Blake esq. 1855
  • Size: 12in x 9in (305mm x 230mm)
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Date : 1855
  • Ref #:  93012

Description:
This original antique lithograph map of Drakes Bay or Puerto de Los Reyes, California, located approximately 30 miles northwest of San Francisco, by Alexander Dallas Bache (great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin) in 1855 - dated - was published by the official chart-maker of the United States, the office of The US Coast Survey.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 12in x 9in (305mm x 230mm)
Plate size: - 12in x 9in (305mm x 230mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

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

Background: 
An uncommon 1855 map of Drakes Bay or Puerto de Los Reyes, California. Located approximately 30 miles northwest of San Francisco, Drakes Bay has long been considered the most likely landing site of the englishman Sir Francis Drake on his historic 1579 circumnavigation of the world. The map features numerous depth soundings and excellent inland topographical detail. A note in the lower left quadrant discusses the soundings. Drawn on a scale of 1:40,000. The Geographical positioning for this chart was the work of George Davidson. The Topography was accomplished by J. S. Lawson. The hydrography was completed by a party under the command of J. Alden. The whole was compiled under the exacting direction of A. D. Bache, Superintendent of the Coast Survey.

U.S. Coast Survey (Office of Coast Survey)
The Office of Coast Survey is the official chart-maker of the United States. Set up in 1807, it is one of the U.S. governments oldest scientific organizations. In 1878 it was given the name of Coast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS). In 1970 it became part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The agency was established in 1807 when President Thomas Jefferson signed the document entitled An act to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States. While the bills objective was specific—to produce nautical charts—it reflected larger issues of concern to the new nation: national boundaries, commerce, and defence.
The early years were difficult. Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, who was eventually to become the agencys first superintendent, went to England to collect scientific instruments but was unable to return through the duration of the War of 1812. After his return, he worked on a survey of the New York Harbor in 1817, but Congress stepped in to suspend the work because of tensions between civilian and military control of the agency. After several years under the control of the U.S. Army, the Survey of the Coast was reestablished in 1832, and President Andrew Jackson appointed Hassler as superintendent.
The U.S. Coast Survey was a civilian agency but, from the beginning, members of the Navy and Army were detailed to service with the Survey, and Navy ships were also detailed to its use. In general, army officers worked on topographic surveys on the land and maps based on the surveys, while navy officers worked on hydrographic surveys in coastal waters.
Alexander Dallas Bache, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was the second Coast Survey superintendent. Bache was a physicist, scientist, and surveyor who established the first magnetic observatory and served as the first president of the National Academy of Sciences. Under Bache, Coast Survey quickly applied its resources to the Union cause during the Civil War. In addition to setting up additional lithographic presses to produce the thousands of charts required by the Navy and other vessels, Bache made a critical decision to send Coast Survey parties to work with blockading squadrons and armies in the field, producing hundreds of maps and charts. Bache detailed these activities in his annual reports to Congress.
Coast Survey cartographer Edwin Hergesheimer created the map showing the density of the slave population in the Southern states.
Bache was also one of four members of the governments Blockade Strategy Board, planning strategy to essentially strangle the South, economically and militarily. On April 16, 1861, President Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring the blockade of ports from South Carolina to Texas. Baches Notes on the Coast provided valuable information for Union naval forces.
Maps were of paramount importance in wartime:
It is certain that accurate maps must form the basis of well-conducted military operations, and that the best time to procure them is not when an attack is impending, or when the army waits, but when there is no hindrance to, or pressure upon, the surveyors. That no coast can be effectively attacked, defended, or blockaded without accurate maps and charts, has been fully proved by the events of the last two years, if, indeed, such a proposition required practical proof.
— Alexander Dallas Bache, 1862 report.
Coast Survey attracted some of the best and brightest scientists and naturalists. It commissioned the naturalist Louis Agassiz to conduct the first scientific study of the Florida reef system. James McNeill Whistler, who went on to paint the iconic Whistlers Mother, was a Coast Survey engraver. The naturalist John Muir was a guide and artist on Survey of the 39th Parallel across the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah.
The agencys men and women (women professionals were hired as early as 1845) led scientific and engineering activities through the decades. In 1926, they started production of aeronautical charts. During the height of the Great Depression, Coast and Geodetic Survey organized surveying parties and field offices that employed over 10,000 people, including many out-of-work engineers.
In World War II, C&GS sent over 1,000 civilian members and more than half of its commissioned officers to serve as hydrographers, artillery surveyors, cartographers, army engineers, intelligence officers, and geophysicists in all theaters of the war. Civilians on the home front produced over 100 million maps and charts for the Allied Forces. Eleven members of the C&GS gave their lives during the war.

Alexander Dallas Bache 1806 – 1867 was an American physicist, scientist, and surveyor who erected coastal fortifications and conducted a detailed survey to map the mid-eastern United States coastline. Originally an army engineer, he later became Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey, and built it into the foremost scientific institution in the country before the Civil War.
Alexander Bache was born in Philadelphia, the son of Richard Bache, Jr., and Sophia Burrell Dallas Bache. He came from a prominent family as he was the nephew of Vice-President George M. Dallas and naval hero Alexander J. Dallas. He was the grandson of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Dallas and was the great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin.
Bache was a professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania from 1828 to 1841 and again from 1842 to 1843. He spent 1836–1838 in Europe on behalf of the trustees of what became Girard College; he was named president of the college after his return. Abroad, he examined European education systems, and on his return he published a valuable report. From 1839 to 1842, he served as the first president of Central High School of Philadelphia, one of the oldest public high schools in the United States.
In 1843, on the death of Professor Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, Bache was appointed superintendent of the United States Coast Survey. He convinced the United States Congress of the value of this work and, by means of the liberal aid it granted, he completed the mapping of the whole coast by a skillful division of labor and the erection of numerous observing stations. In addition, magnetic and meteorological data were collected. Bache served as head of the Coast Survey for 24 years (until his death).

$125.00 USD
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1855 US Coast Survey & A D Bache Antique Map of Golden Gate Entrance to San Francisco Bay

1855 US Coast Survey & A D Bache Antique Map of Golden Gate Entrance to San Francisco Bay

  • Title : US Coast Survey A D Bache Superintendant Map of the Vicinity of the Golden Gate San Francisco Bay California...By W P Blake esq. 1855
  • Size: 11 1/2in x 9in (290mm x 230mm)
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Date : 1855
  • Ref #:  93013

Description:
This original antique lithograph map of the Golden Gate, entrance to San Francisco Bay, prior to the bridge, by Alexander Dallas Bache (great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin) in 1855 - dated - was published by the official chart-maker of the United Stetes, the office of The US Coast Survey.

Alexander Dallas Bache 1806 – 1867 was an American physicist, scientist, and surveyor who erected coastal fortifications and conducted a detailed survey to map the mid-eastern United States coastline. Originally an army engineer, he later became Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey, and built it into the foremost scientific institution in the country before the Civil War.
Alexander Bache was born in Philadelphia, the son of Richard Bache, Jr., and Sophia Burrell Dallas Bache. He came from a prominent family as he was the nephew of Vice-President George M. Dallas and naval hero Alexander J. Dallas. He was the grandson of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Dallas and was the great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin.
Bache was a professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania from 1828 to 1841 and again from 1842 to 1843. He spent 1836–1838 in Europe on behalf of the trustees of what became Girard College; he was named president of the college after his return. Abroad, he examined European education systems, and on his return he published a valuable report. From 1839 to 1842, he served as the first president of Central High School of Philadelphia, one of the oldest public high schools in the United States.
In 1843, on the death of Professor Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, Bache was appointed superintendent of the United States Coast Survey. He convinced the United States Congress of the value of this work and, by means of the liberal aid it granted, he completed the mapping of the whole coast by a skillful division of labor and the erection of numerous observing stations. In addition, magnetic and meteorological data were collected. Bache served as head of the Coast Survey for 24 years (until his death).

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 11 1/2in x 9in (290mm x 230mm)
Plate size: - 11 1/2in x 9in (290mm x 230mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

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

Background: 
The earliest archaeological evidence of human habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. The Yelamu group of the Ohlone people resided in a few small villages when an overland Spanish exploration party, led by Don Gaspar de Portolà, arrived on November 2, 1769, the first documented European visit to San Francisco Bay. Seven years later, on March 28, 1776, the Spanish established the Presidio of San Francisco, followed by a mission, Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores), established by the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza.
Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the area became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the mission system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, near a boat anchorage around what is today Portsmouth Square. Together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7, 1846, during the Mexican–American War, and Captain John B. Montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, and Mexico officially ceded the territory to the United States at the end of the war. Despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography.
The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers (known as forty-niners, as in 1849). With their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of great wealth was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels; many were left to rot and some were sunk to establish title to the underwater lot. By 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land. Buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings.
California was quickly granted statehood in 1850, and the U.S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate and a fort on Alcatraz Island to secure the San Francisco Bay. Silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, and gambling.
Entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush. Early winners were the banking industry, with the founding of Wells Fargo in 1852 and the Bank of California in 1864. Development of the Port of San Francisco and the establishment in 1869 of overland access to the eastern U.S. rail system via the newly completed Pacific Railroad (the construction of which the city only reluctantly helped support) helped make the Bay Area a center for trade. Catering to the needs and tastes of the growing population, Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business and Domingo Ghirardelli began manufacturing chocolate. Immigrant laborers made the city a polyglot culture, with Chinese Railroad Workers, drawn to Old Gold Mountain, creating the citys Chinatown quarter. In 1870, Asians made up 8% of the population. The first cable cars carried San Franciscans up Clay Street in 1873. The citys sea of Victorian houses began to take shape, and civic leaders campaigned for a spacious public park, resulting in plans for Golden Gate Park. San Franciscans built schools, churches, theaters, and all the hallmarks of civic life. The Presidio developed into the most important American military installation on the Pacific coast. By 1890, San Franciscos population approached 300,000, making it the eighth-largest city in the United States at the time. Around 1901, San Francisco was a major city known for its flamboyant style, stately hotels, ostentatious mansions on Nob Hill, and a thriving arts scene. The first North American plague epidemic was the San Francisco plague of 1900–1904.

U.S. Coast Survey (Office of Coast Survey)
The Office of Coast Survey is the official chart-maker of the United States. Set up in 1807, it is one of the U.S. governments oldest scientific organizations. In 1878 it was given the name of Coast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS). In 1970 it became part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The agency was established in 1807 when President Thomas Jefferson signed the document entitled An act to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States. While the bills objective was specific—to produce nautical charts—it reflected larger issues of concern to the new nation: national boundaries, commerce, and defence.
The early years were difficult. Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, who was eventually to become the agencys first superintendent, went to England to collect scientific instruments but was unable to return through the duration of the War of 1812. After his return, he worked on a survey of the New York Harbor in 1817, but Congress stepped in to suspend the work because of tensions between civilian and military control of the agency. After several years under the control of the U.S. Army, the Survey of the Coast was reestablished in 1832, and President Andrew Jackson appointed Hassler as superintendent.
The U.S. Coast Survey was a civilian agency but, from the beginning, members of the Navy and Army were detailed to service with the Survey, and Navy ships were also detailed to its use. In general, army officers worked on topographic surveys on the land and maps based on the surveys, while navy officers worked on hydrographic surveys in coastal waters.
Alexander Dallas Bache, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was the second Coast Survey superintendent. Bache was a physicist, scientist, and surveyor who established the first magnetic observatory and served as the first president of the National Academy of Sciences. Under Bache, Coast Survey quickly applied its resources to the Union cause during the Civil War. In addition to setting up additional lithographic presses to produce the thousands of charts required by the Navy and other vessels, Bache made a critical decision to send Coast Survey parties to work with blockading squadrons and armies in the field, producing hundreds of maps and charts. Bache detailed these activities in his annual reports to Congress.
Coast Survey cartographer Edwin Hergesheimer created the map showing the density of the slave population in the Southern states.
Bache was also one of four members of the governments Blockade Strategy Board, planning strategy to essentially strangle the South, economically and militarily. On April 16, 1861, President Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring the blockade of ports from South Carolina to Texas. Baches Notes on the Coast provided valuable information for Union naval forces.
Maps were of paramount importance in wartime:
It is certain that accurate maps must form the basis of well-conducted military operations, and that the best time to procure them is not when an attack is impending, or when the army waits, but when there is no hindrance to, or pressure upon, the surveyors. That no coast can be effectively attacked, defended, or blockaded without accurate maps and charts, has been fully proved by the events of the last two years, if, indeed, such a proposition required practical proof.
— Alexander Dallas Bache, 1862 report.
Coast Survey attracted some of the best and brightest scientists and naturalists. It commissioned the naturalist Louis Agassiz to conduct the first scientific study of the Florida reef system. James McNeill Whistler, who went on to paint the iconic Whistlers Mother, was a Coast Survey engraver. The naturalist John Muir was a guide and artist on Survey of the 39th Parallel across the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah.
The agencys men and women (women professionals were hired as early as 1845) led scientific and engineering activities through the decades. In 1926, they started production of aeronautical charts. During the height of the Great Depression, Coast and Geodetic Survey organized surveying parties and field offices that employed over 10,000 people, including many out-of-work engineers.
In World War II, C&GS sent over 1,000 civilian members and more than half of its commissioned officers to serve as hydrographers, artillery surveyors, cartographers, army engineers, intelligence officers, and geophysicists in all theaters of the war. Civilians on the home front produced over 100 million maps and charts for the Allied Forces. Eleven members of the C&GS gave their lives during the war.

$125.00 USD
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1794 James Cook & Vancouver Large Rare Antique Map NW America. Alaska, Canada, Bering Straits

1794 James Cook & Vancouver Large Rare Antique Map NW America. Alaska, Canada, Bering Straits

  • Title : Chart of the NW Coast of America and the NE Coast of Asia Explored in the Years 1778 and 1779. Prepared by Lieut. Heny Roberts under the immediate Inspection of Capt Cook
  • Ref #:  61145
  • Size: 33in x 23in (840mm x 585mm)
  • Date : 1794
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This very large, beautifully hand coloured original copper-plate engraved, 2nd edition, antique map of NW America, NE Russia, North Pacific & the Bering Straits by Henry Roberts & Capt James Cook, with later information from other explorers, was engraved by William Palmer in 1794 - date engraved at the foot of the map - and was published by William Faden in London.

This highly detailed chart of the North Pacific, is based upon Captain James Cook's map from his last voyage of 1784, with updates in 1794 to include discoveries and tracks from the voyages of Captain George Vancouver, Sir Alexander MacKenzie, 18th Century Russian sources about the northern arctic regions and others. One interesting feature is the supposed course of the voyage of Columbia Rediviva, commonly known as the Columbia, a privately owned ship under the command of John Kendrick and Captain Robert Gray, with tracks extending due north into British Columbia. The map also includes a nearly daily course of Cook's voyage along Northern Canada and the NW Coast of America, including the region explored by Vancouver. Details on the NW Passage from Hans Sloan's Japanese map of the world are also included, along with information on certain arctic coastlines from Russian sources and many other annotations. 

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Pink, blue, yellow, green
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 33in x 23in (840mm x 585mm)
Plate size: - 28in x 17in (710mm x 430mm)
Margins: - Min 2in (50mm)

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

Background: The map is the second edition of Lieutenant Henry Robert’s chart depicting Captain Cook’s explorations in the North Pacific during his third and final voyage.  The original Roberts map was suppressed and not included in the official atlas of the journey.  It contained details of the Alaskan coastline and Canadian Arctic not presented on the officially sanctioned map and provided the first relatively accurate mapping of the Northwest Coast of North America, dispelling many of the fantastic theories that had plagued the region for years.
Cook’s death left the production of his final expedition’s findings to two camps of editors: Henry Roberts and Captain King, (the authors of the charts and journals, respectively) and Alexander Dalrymple, Cook’s long-time rival, and his political supporters. Dalrymple won out, and Roberts’ chart was replaced with the less-detailed map engraved by T. Harmar.
It was not understood that Roberts’ chart and the Faden were the same until 1985, when the British Library acquired a proof state of the map.  Roberts had sold his copperplate to Faden, who published this map a month after the publication of the official atlas.  The Roberts / Faden map contains fourteen Alaskan place names not on the authorized map, including Bald Head, Cape Denbigh and Cape Darby in Norton Sound. It also shows, for the first time on any printed map, the results of Hearn’s expedition in the Canadian Arctic.
In 1794,  William Faden commissioned the engraver Louis Stanislas D’Arcy de la Rochette to update Roberts’ chart with new data gathered over the last decade. A note on the map states:
The Interesting Discoveries made by the British and American Ships, since the first Publication of this Chart in 1784, Together with the Hydrographical Materials, lately procured from St. Petersburg and other places, have enabled Mr. De la Rochette to lay down the Numerous Improvements which appear in the Present Edition. 
The 1794 edition of the map also incorporates the supposed course of the American sloop Lady Washington into the Gulph of Georgia in 1794, based upon reports by John Meares, an English fur trader active along the coast of British Columbia. The Lady Washington, commanded by Captain Robert Gray, was the first of many ships sailed by the so-called Boston Men, American fur traders competing for the lucrative China trade. Meares had reported to Captain George Vancouver that Captain Gray had sailed completely around the east side of Vancouver Island, confirming its insularity.  
In describing the first edition, Cohen & Taliaferro (Catalogue 62) note:
This legendary lost chart was drawn by Henry Roberts for the authorized atlas of Cook's third voyage, but because of disputes among the editors, it was never included.  It is now known that the plate for Roberts' chart, " version more elaborate than that [included] in the authorized atlas" (Campbell), was purchased by Faden and published separately.  Th[e] exceptionally rare first state of  the Roberts-Faden chart is the first published map to show the discoveries of Samuel Hearne in the Canadian Arctic. . . .
Although a few examples of the chart were known, including one belonging to the great Americana collector, Thomas Streeter, its true importance was not recognized until 1985, when a proof copy was acquired by the British Library . . .
...the [map] includes a number of Alaskan place-names not found on the authorized version [in the account of Cook's third voyage]. . . 
This Roberts chart also contains information on interior geography not included on the [official map].  The source for this information came from Samuel Hearne's c.1772 manuscript map of the Coppermine River, in the possession of the Hudson's Bay Company, and which had never before appeared in print.  The Company suppressed Hearne's map to protect its interests in the north.  This was important information because Hearne's map showed the impossibility of a Northwest Passage through Hudson's Bay, and it is curious that the Company had not released it to settle arguments over a point that continued to occupy public attention. . .  (Ref Tooley M&B)

$1,499.00 USD
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1771 Bellin Large Original Antique Map of The Kamchatka Peninsula Eastern Russia

1771 Bellin Large Original Antique Map of The Kamchatka Peninsula Eastern Russia

  • Title : Karte Von Kamtschatka gezeichnet von Laurent...P. Mol Sculs..... 1771
  • Ref #:  32212
  • Size: 21in x 13 1/2in (530mm x 340mm)
  • Date : 1771
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This fine, original copper-plate engraved antique map of Kamchatka Peninsula, in Eastern Russia by Jacques Nicolas Bellin in 1773 was published in Antoine François Prevosts 15 volumes of Histoire Generale des Voyages written by Prevost & other authors between 1746-1790.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Green, Yellow,
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 21in x 13 1/2in (530mm x 340mm)
Plate size: - 20 1/2in x 12 1/2in (520mm x 320mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (6mm)

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

Background: 
One of Antoine Francois Prevosts monumental undertakings was his history of exploration & discovery in 15 volumes titledHistoire Générale des Voyages written between 1746-1759 and was extended to 20 volumes after his death by various authors.
The 20 volumes cover the early explorations & discoveries on 3 continents: Africa (v. 1-5), Asia (v. 5-11), and America (v. 12-15) with material on the finding of the French, English, Dutch, and Portugese.
A number of notable cartographers and engravers contributed to the copper plate maps and views to the 20 volumes including Nicolas Bellin, Jan Schley, Chedel, Franc Aveline, Fessard, and many others.
The African volumes cover primarily coastal countries of West, Southern, and Eastern Africa, plus the Congo, Madagascar, Arabia and the Persian Gulf areas.
The Asian volumes cover China, Korea, Tibet, Japan, Philippines, and countries bordering the Indian Ocean.
Volume 11 includes Australia and Antarctica.
Volumes 12-15 cover voyages and discoveries in America, including the East Indies, South, Central and North America.
Volumes 16-20 include supplement volumes & tables along with continuation of voyages and discoveries in Russia, Northern Europe, America, Asia & Australia.

$175.00 USD
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1774 Hawkesworth Large Antique Map Chart of The Magellan Straits, South America

1774 Hawkesworth Large Antique Map Chart of The Magellan Straits, South America

  • Title : Carte Du Detroit De Magellan dans laquelle on a Insere Les Observations et Les Decouvertes Du Capne Byron, du Capne Wallis, et du Capne Carteret
  • Ref  :  50008
  • Size: 30 1/2in x 21 1/2in (775mm x 545mm)
  • Date : 1774
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This fine large, original copper-plate engraved, antique map, a chart of the Straits of Magellan, South America and the Patagonian & South Chilean shoreline was engraved by Robert Benard and published in the 1774 French edition of John Hawkesworths An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere and Successively Performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavor, Drawn Up from the Journals Which Were Kept by the Several Commanders, and from the Papers of Joseph Banks

A large scale chart with detailed shoreline topography, channels, soundings, shoals, harbors and small islands. There are also anchorages, capes & bays as well as 4 finely engraved landfall approach views of
1.Vue Du Port Famine
2. Cap Beau Tems
3.Cap Des Vierges
4. Rochers blanc. (white rocks).
The tracks and some details in this chart are attributed to the following navigators;
Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis and Captain Carteret.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Yellow, green, brown
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 30 1/2in x 21 1/2in (775mm x 545mm)
Plate size: - 30in x 20in (765mm x 510mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

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

Background: 
The Strait of Magellan
(Estrecho de Magallanes) is a navigable sea route separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Ferdinand Magellan a Portuguese explorer and navigator in the service of Charles I of Spain, became the first European to navigate the strait in 1520 during his circumnavigation of the globe.
Other early explorers included Francis Drake (1578). In February 1696 the first French expedition, under the command of M. de Gennes reached the Strait of Magellan. The expedition is described by the young French explorer, engineer and hydrographer François Froger in his A Relation of a Voyage (1699).
The strait was first carefully explored and thoroughly charted by Phillip Parker King, who commanded the British survey vessel HMS Adventure, and in consort with HMS Beagle spent five years surveying the complex coasts around the strait (1826–1830). A report on the survey was presented at two meetings of the Geographical Society of London in 1831.

The 3 Voyages, with Captains, ships & tracks who contributed to this map are;
1. 1764-66 - HMS Dolphin under Command of Commodore John Byron, completed the first circumnavigation of the globe under two years.
2. 1766-68 - HMS Dolphin under Command of Captain Samuel Wallis, completed another circumnavigation & was the first European to visit Tahiti & the Society Islands.
3. 1766-68 - HMS Swallow under Command of Captain Philip Carteret, who accompanied HMS Dolphin under the command of Samuel Wallis to circumnavigate the world.

John Hawkesworth 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 Cook’s 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.

Robert Bénard 1734 – 1777 was an 18th-century French engraver.
Specialized in the technique of engraving, Robert Ménard is mainly famous for having supplied a significant amount of plates (at least 1,800) to the Encyclopédie by Diderot & d Alembert from 1751.
Later, publisher Charles-Joseph Panckoucke reused many of his productions to illustrate the works of his catalog.

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1745 Claude Delisle Large Antique Map of America - Magnificent Landmark Map

1745 Claude Delisle Large Antique Map of America - Magnificent Landmark Map

  • Title : Carte D Amerique...Par Guillaume Delisle...1722
  • Date : 1722 (1745)
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Ref: 50603
  • Size: 28in x 22in (710mm x 560mm) 

This large, beautifully engraved, hand coloured original antique map of America, was published in 1722 by Claude de L'Isle (Delisle) and re-issued - cartographically unchanged - by Phillip Bauche in 1745 - both dates are engraved in the title cartouche and at the foot of the map. This is a landmark map and one of the most important maps of America published in the 18th century. So detailed was it, for its day, that it was copied many times over the next 100 years.

Condition Report
Paper thickness and quality: - Very heavy and stable
Paper color: - Off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: -  28in x 22in (710mm x 560mm)
Plate size: - 24 ½in x 19 ½in (620mm x 495mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Toning along centrefold, professional restoration to small worm holes adjacent to Caribbean
Verso: - Toning along centrefold 

Background: The map has an immense amount of detail regarding North America. In California and the Southwest the west coast is taken north to Cap Mendocin and Cap Blanc, with the notation, "Entrée decouverte par Martin d'Aguilar." Wagner notes "Briggs names with some of the corrections made by Blaeu. The Mediterranean Sea of California has disappeared. Delisle retained Cabrillo's B. de Pinos and introduced a few, the I. Ste Anne, the B. de St. Martin, and the B. de la Medelaine, from other maps. It seems likely that he had read the account of the Vizcaino expedition Torquemada... On the Sonora coast the names are much the same as those on his 1700 map with a few additions from Kino's map and other sources in Sonora. The course of the Mississippi is 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 look of the Great Lakes take on a more realistic form, the original Colonial States are represented and as can be expected from a French map of the period France through Louisiana claims most of south middle and north America. The map is rich with Indian and other early American details. (Ref: M&B; Tooley)   

 

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1598 Braun & Hogenberg Antique Map View Old Town of Gallipoli Apulia South Italy

1598 Braun & Hogenberg Antique Map View Old Town of Gallipoli Apulia South Italy

Description:
This beautiful original hand coloured copper plate engraved antique map a birds eye view of the Old Town of Gallipoli located on the Salentine Peninsula, in Apulia, Southern Italy & the Angevine-Aragonese Castle, was engraved by the Italian Natale Bonifacio di Girolamo, was published in the 1598 edition of Braun & Hogenbergs atlas on Civitates Orbis Terrarum

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: - 20 3/4in x 16in (520mm x 405mm)
Plate size: - 20in x 16in (520mm x 405mm)
Margins: - Min 1/8in (3mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Top of right margin cropped to border
Plate area: - None
Verso: - Light soiling

Background: 
Gallipoli is a southern Italian town and comune in the province of Lecce, in Apulia.
The town is located by the Ionian Sea, on the west coast of the Salentina Peninsula. The town of Gallipoli is divided into two parts, the modern and the old city. The new town includes all the newest buildings including a skyscraper. The old town is located on a limestone island, linked to the mainland by a bridge built in the 16th century.
According to a legend, the city was founded in ancient times by Idomeneus of Crete. Pliny the Elder attributes the foundation to the Senones Gauls, while more likely it was a Messapic settlement. Historically, what is known is that Gallipoli was a city of the Greater Greece, ruling over a large territory including today\'s Porto Cesareo. In 265 BC it sided with Pyrrhus and Taranto against ancient Rome, suffering a defeat which relegated it to a Roman colony (later a municipium).
In the early Middle Ages, it was most likely sacked by the Vandals and the Goths. Rebuilt by the Byzantines, Gallipoli lived an economically and socially flourishing period due to its geographical position. Later it was owned by the Roman Popes, and was a centre of fighting against the Greek monastic orders.
In the 11th century Gallipoli was conquered by the Normans and, in 1268, it was besieged by Charles I of Anjou, causing numerous inhabitants to flee to the nearby Alezio. The city was repopulated around 1300, under the feudal rule of the principality of Taranto. In 1484 the Venetians tried to occupy it, but without results. King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies started the construction of the port, which in the 18th century became the largest olive oil market in the Mediterranean.
After the unification of Italy (1861), Gallipoli was capital of a circondario, together with Lecce and Taranto.

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1630 Jacob Tirinus Large Early Antique 1st Edition Map of The Holy Land, Palestine, Israel

1630 Jacob Tirinus Large Early Antique 1st Edition Map of The Holy Land, Palestine, Israel

  • Title : Chorographia Terrae Sanctae in angustiorem Formam Redacta, et ex variis auctoribus a multis errorbus expurgata
  • Ref #:  82082
  • Size: 33 3/4in x 13 3/4in (855mm x 350mm)
  • Date : 1632
  • Condition: (A) Very Good Condition

Description:
This large magnificent, hand coloured original copper plate engraved antique 1st edition map of the Holy Land by Johann Belling & Augustus Vindel was published in the 1632 edition of Commentarius in Sacram Scripturam (Commentary on the New and Old Testament) by the Belgian Jesuit monk Jacobus Tirinus.
This is without doubt one of the most visually stunning maps of the Holy land ever published and there have been many elaborated & beautiful maps of this important region published since the dark ages, when the Holy Land was considered the geographical center of the world.
This map was originally prepared in 1632 for Tirinuss study of the Holy Land and was originally engraved by Cornelius Galle and printed in Antwerp by Martinus Nutius. Tirinuss work went through many editions and printings 

Background: Oriented to the East the map is surrounded with panels of vignettes displaying sacred objects including a menorah, the arc of the covenant, the altar of sacrifices, the Tabernacle, and a plan and elevations of the Temple. At center is an inset bird's-eye plan of ancient Jerusalem based on the Spanish biblical geographer, Juan Bautista Vilalpando. Oriented with east at top, the map includes the territories of the twelve tribes on both sides of the Jordan River and the route of the Exodus and Wandering. The map depicts from Syria and Tyre southward as far as the Sinai, Egypt and Thebes. At the southern most point, in Egypt, is located the city of Thebes and, slightly to the north, near Memphis, the wildly misshapen Pyramids of Egypt. Slightly further north is the city of Tanis, possible resting place for the Ark of the Covenant. In this spirit, slightly to the south of Tanis, the city of Ramesse is indicated as the starting point of the Biblical Exodus and the wandering of the Hebrews. Following their path into the desert and across the Red Sea – where Pharaoh is shown being inundated by the returning waters following Moses’ parting of the Red Sea. Now in the Sinai, we can follow the footsteps of the Hebrews to Mount Sinai (Sinai Mons), where Moses is drawn throwing down the tablets of God. Slightly to the northwest of this location a cleft in the mountains reveals the location of the ancient Nabatean city of Petra. With regard to Petra, the location and gorge detail is surprisingly accurate considering that it was only “discovered” by the Swiss adventurer Johannes L. Burckhardt, in 1812, 200 years after this map was drawn. Heading northward the lands claimed by the various tribes of Israel are beautifully detailed along with major cities, camps, roads, and trade routes. The Mediterranean is decorated with sailing ships and, in the lower left quadrant, a surveying tool between two censors. Surrounding the map proper on the left, right, and bottom margins, there are 19 maps and images of Biblical objects. The largest and most central of these is a stunning inset of Jerusalem, which notes the various temples and important buildings located there. Other images include the Arc of the Covenant, Israelite coins, Roman antiquities, views of a Menorah, various angels, and a plan of the Temple. All in all an extraordinary piece, one of the most attractive maps of the Holy Land ever made.

Jacobus Tirinus (1580 - 1636) or Jacobi Tirini was a Jesuit monk, theologian, historian, and Biblical scholar. His major work is the Commentarius in Sacram Scripturam a two volume Bible commentary. Tirini was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1580. Following his admission into the Jesuit Order, Tirini became a respected Biblical scholar and a prominent member of the Order. He was assigned First Superior to the Antwerp Jesuit House as well as "Directior of the Holland Mission". Tirini's Biblial commentaries are still referenced today.(Ref: Laor; M&B; Tooley)

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy & stable
Paper color: - White
Age of map color: - Early   
Colors used: - Green, blue, yellow, red, orange
General color appearance: - Authentic   
Paper size: -  33 3/4in x 13 3/4in (855mm x 350mm)
Plate size: - 33in x 13in (840mm x 330mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (15mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Top margin extended from plate-mark
Plate area: - Very light creasing in folds.
Verso: - Light soiling

$1,250.00 USD
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1789 Jean Baptiste Lamarck Antique Concology Print, Terebratula Lamp Shells Plate 245

1789 Jean Baptiste Lamarck Antique Concology Print, Terebratula Lamp Shells Plate 245

Description: 
This fine original copper-plate engraved antique Conchology or Shell print by Jean Baptiste Lamarck was drawn by Henri Joseph Redoute (1766 - 1852) - younger brother of the famous illustrator P J Redoute - engraved by Robert Benard and published in the 1789 edition of Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois règnes de la nature(1782-1832) by the French publisher Charles Joseph Panckoucke.

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: - 11in x 8in (280mm x 200mm)
Plate size: - 10in x 7in (255mm x 180mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

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

Background: 
Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois regnes de la nature was an illustrated encyclopedia of plants, animals and minerals, notable for including the first scientific descriptions of many species, and for its attractive engravings. It was published in Paris by Charles Joseph Panckoucke, from 1788 on. Although its several volumes can be considered a part of the greater Encyclopédie méthodique, they were titled and issued separately.

Encyclopédie méthodique par ordre des matières (Methodical Encyclopedia by Order of Subject Matter) was published between 1782 and 1832 by the French publisher Charles Joseph Panckoucke, his son-in-law Henri Agasse, and the latter´s wife, Thérèse-Charlotte Agasse. Arranged by disciplines, it was a revised and much expanded version, in roughly 210 to 216 volumes (different sets were bound differently), of the alphabetically arranged Encyclopédie, edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d Alembert.
Two sets of Diderots Encyclopédie and its supplements were cut up into articles. Each subject category was entrusted to a specialized editor, whose job was to collect all articles relating to his subject and exclude those belonging to others. Great care was to be taken of those articles that were of a doubtful nature, which were not to be omitted. For certain topics, such as air (which belonged equally to chemistry, physics and medicine), the methodical arrangement had the unexpected effect of breaking up a single article into several parts. Each volume was to have its own introduction, a table of contents, and a history of the Encyclopédie. The whole work was to be linked together by a Vocabulaire universel (Vol. 1 – 4), with references to all locations where each word appears.
The prospectus, issued early in 1782, proposed three editions, each with seven volumes of 250 to 300 plates:
84 volumes;
43 volumes, with 3 columns per page; and
53 volumes of about 100 sheets, with 2 columns per page.
The publication was continued by Henri Agasse, Panckouckes son-in-law, from 1794 to 1813, and then by the latters widow, Mme Agasse, until 1832, when it was completed in 102 livraisons or 337 parts, forming roughly 166½ volumes of text (depending on how the parts were bound) as well as 51 illustrated parts containing 6,439 plates. The number of pages totalled 124,210 pages, of which 5,458 pages were plates. To save money, the plates belonging to architecture were not published. Pharmacy (separated from chemistry), minerals, education, Ponts et chausses were not published as had been announced.
Many dictionaries have a classed index of articles. The one in Oeconomie politique is an excellent example, giving the contents of each article, so that any passage can be found easily.
When completed, the encyclopedia suffered at least one great weakness. As the Vocabulaire Universel, the key and index to the entire work, was not published, it was difficult to carry out any research or to find all the articles on any particular subject. The original parts had often been subdivided, and had been so added onto by other dictionaries, supplements, and appendices that an exact account could not be given of the work, which contained 88 alphabets, 83 indexes, 166 introductions, discourses, prefaces, etc. Overall, probably no more an unmanageable body of dictionaries has ever been published, except Jacques Paul Mignes Encyclopédie théologique, Paris, 1844–1875, with 168 volumes, 101 dictionaries, and 119,059 pages.
The Encyclopédie méthodique par ordre des matières occupied a thousand workers in production, and 2,250 contributors.

Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de1744 – 1829
Lamarck was a pioneer French biologist, who is best known for his idea that acquired characters are inheritable, an idea known as Lamarckism, which is controverted by modern evolutionary theorygenetics.
Lamarck was the youngest of 11 children in a family of the lesser nobility. His family intended him for the priesthood, but, after the death of his father and the expulsion of the Jesuits from France, Lamarck embarked on a military career in 1761. As a soldier garrisoned in the south of France, he became interested in collecting plants. An injury forced him to resign in 1768, but his fascination for botany endured, and it was as a botanist that he first built his scientific reputation.
Lamarck gained attention among the naturalists in Paris at the Jardin et Cabinet du Roi (the kings garden and natural history collection, known informally as the Jardin du Roi) by claiming he could create a system for identifying the plants of France that would be more efficient than any system currently in existence, including that of the great Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus. This project appealed to Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, who was the director of the Jardin du Roi and Linnaeuss greatest rival. Buffon arranged to have Lamarcks work published at government expense, and Lamarck received the proceeds from the sales. The work appeared in three volumes under the title Flore française (1778; French Flora). Lamarck designed the Flore française specifically for the task of plant identification and used dichotomous keys, which are classification tools that allow the user to choose between opposing pairs of morphological characters (see taxonomy: The objectives of biological classification) to achieve this end.
With Buffons support, Lamarck was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1779. Two years later Buffon named Lamarck correspondent of the Jardin du Roi, evidently to give Lamarck additional status while he escorted Buffons son on a scientific tour of Europe. This provided Lamarck with his first official connection, albeit an unsalaried one, with the Jardin du Roi. Shortly after Buffons death in 1788, his successor, Flahault de la Billarderie, created a salaried position for Lamarck with the title of botanist of the King and keeper of the Kings herbaria.
Between 1783 and 1792 Lamarck published three large botanical volumes for the Encyclopédie méthodique (Methodical Encyclopaedia) , a massive publishing enterprise begun by French publisher Charles-Joseph Panckoucke in the late 18th century. Lamarck also published botanical papers in the Mémoires of the Academy of Sciences. In 1792 he cofounded and coedited a short-lived journal of natural history, the Journal dhistoire naturelle.
Lamarcks career changed dramatically in 1793 when the former Jardin du Roi was transformed into the Muséum National dHistoire Naturelle (National Museum of Natural History). In the changeover, all 12 of the scientists who had been officers of the previous establishment were named as professors and coadministrators of the new institution; however, only two professorships of botany were created. The botanists Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu and René Desfontaines held greater claims to these positions, and Lamarck, in a striking shift of responsibilities, was made professor of the insects, worms, and microscopic animals. Although this change of focus was remarkable, it was not wholly unjustified, as Lamarck was an ardent shell collector. Lamarck then set out to classify this large and poorly analyzed expanse of the animal kingdom. Later he would name this group animals without vertebrae and invent the term invertebrate. By 1802 Lamarck had also introduced the term biology.
This challenge would have been enough to occupy the energies of most naturalists; however, Lamarcks intellectual aspirations ran well beyond that of reforming invertebrate classification. In the 1790s he began promoting the broad theories of physics, chemistry, and meteorology that he had been nurturing for almost two decades. He also began thinking about Earths geologic history and developed notions that he would eventually publish under the title of Hydrogéologie (1802). In his physico-chemical writings, he advanced an old-fashioned, four-element theory that was self-consciously at odds with the revolutionary advances of the emerging pneumatic chemistry of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier. His colleagues at the Institute of France (the successor to the Academy of Sciences) saw Lamarcks broad theorizing as unscientific system building. Lamarck in turn became increasingly scornful of scientists who preferred small facts to larger, more important ones. He began to characterize himself as a naturalist-philosopher, a person more concerned with the broader processes of nature than the details of the chemists laboratory or naturalists closet.
In 1800 Lamarck first set forth the revolutionary notion of species mutability during a lecture to students in his invertebrate zoology class at the National Museum of Natural History. By 1802 the general outlines of his broad theory of organic transformation had taken shape. He presented the theory successively in his Recherches sur lorganisation des corps vivans (1802; Research on the Organization of Living Bodies), his Philosophie zoologique (1809; Zoological Philosophy), and the introduction to his great multivolume work on invertebrate classification, Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres (1815–22; Natural History of Invertebrate Animals) . Lamarcks theory of organic development included the idea that the very simplest forms of plant and animal life were the result of spontaneous generation. Life became successively diversified, he claimed, as the result of two very different sorts of causes. He called the first the power of life, or the cause that tends to make organization increasingly complex, whereas he classified the second as the modifying influence of particular circumstances (that is, the effects of the environment). He explained this in his Philosophie zoologique : The state in which we now see all the animals is on the one hand the product of the increasing composition of organization, which tends to form a regular gradation, and on the other hand that of the influences of a multitude of very different circumstances that continually tend to destroy the regularity in the gradation of the increasing composition of organization.
With this theory, Lamarck offered much more than an account of how species change. He also explained what he understood to be the shape of a truly natural system of classification of the animal kingdom. The primary feature of this system was a single scale of increasing complexity composed of all the different classes of animals, starting with the simplest microscopic organisms, or infusorians, and rising up to the mammals. The species, however, could not be arranged in a simple series. Lamarck described them as forming lateral ramifications with respect to the general masses of organization represented by the classes. Lateral ramifications in species resulted when they underwent transformations that reflected the diverse, particular environments to which they had been exposed.
By Lamarcks account, animals, in responding to different environments, adopted new habits. Their new habits caused them to use some organs more and some organs less, which resulted in the strengthening of the former and the weakening of the latter. New characters thus acquired by organisms over the course of their lives were passed on to the next generation (provided, in the case of sexual reproduction, that both of the parents of the offspring had undergone the same changes). Small changes that accumulated over great periods of time produced major differences. Lamarck thus explained how the shapes of giraffes, snakes, storks, swans, and numerous other creatures were a consequence of long-maintained habits. The basic idea of the inheritance of acquired characters had originated with Anaxagoras, Hippocrates, and others, but Lamarck was essentially the first naturalist to argue at length that the long-term operation of this process could result in species change.
Later in the century, after English naturalist Charles Darwin advanced his theory of evolution by natural selection, the idea of the inheritance of acquired characters came to be identified as a distinctively Lamarckian view of organic change (though Darwin himself also believed that acquired characters could be inherited). The idea was not seriously challenged in biology until the German biologist August Weismann did so in the 1880s. In the 20th century, since Lamarcks idea failed to be confirmed experimentally and the evidence commonly cited in its favour was given different interpretations, it became thoroughly discredited. Epigenetics, the study of the chemical modification of genes and gene-associated proteins, has since offered an explanation for how certain traits developed during an organisms lifetime can be passed along to its offspring.
Lamarck made his most important contributions to science as a botanical and zoological systematist, as a founder of invertebrate paleontology, and as an evolutionary theorist. In his own day, his theory of evolution was generally rejected as implausible, unsubstantiated, or heretical. Today he is primarily remembered for his notion of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Nonetheless, Lamarck stands out in the history of biology as the first writer to set forth—both systematically and in detail—a comprehensive theory of organic evolution that accounted for the successive production of all the different forms of life on Earth.

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