Item 124 - detail
121. [MAP: AMERICAS (CALIFORNIA AS AN ISLAND)]. MOLL, Herman. A Map of America. According to ye newest and most Exact Observations. [London, 1711?]. Engraved map. 26.8 x 18.7 cm. (10-9/16 x 7-3/8 inches). Black and white. Scale not stated. Small compass rose. Very fine.
State 2 (same as first state printed around the same
time, except Vol. III p. 155 printed above the map).
McLaughlin, The Mapping of California as an Island
179. Phillips, Atlases 557. "One of the most
distinctive features of Moll's Southwest is the portrayal
of California as an island. Although this was common among
the cartographers of the time, few of Moll's contemporaries
continued to show California in this manner after its
insularity had been disproved. Yet with two exceptions Moll
carried out this portrayal until his death.... Father
Eusebio Kino, was the first European to journey overland
from California; a map he drew in 1698, published in 1705,
showed California as part of the mainland. Father Kino's
view at first did not find general acceptance, especially
with Moll, who commented, 'Why, I have had in my office
mariners, who have sailed around it'" (Reinhartz, "Herman
Moll, Geographer: An Early Eighteenth-Century European View
of the American Southwest," pp. 23-25 in Reinhartz &
Colley, The Mapping of the American Southwest; see
also p. 79 where a map of the same title is listed as being
from Atlas Geographagus, London, 1711-1717).
($300-500) $345.00
122. [MAP: WORLD]. DE L'ISLE, Guillaume. Hemisphere septentrional pour voir plus distinctement les terres arctiques. [With]: Hemisphere meridional pour voir plus distinctement les terres australes. Paris, 1714. Two engraved polar projection hemispheric maps. Each map approximately 46 cm. (18-1/8 inches) in diameter. Original outline coloring. Blank margins lightly browned and with a few short tears (no losses) to edges of blank margins; otherwise fine, on good quality paper with full margins.
First state (with the Quai d'Horloge address) of this cartographically accurate pair of hemispheres, showing the earth from the north and south polar projections. Phillips, Atlases 535. Wagner, Northwest Coast 504 (northern hemisphere). "Here we see, for the first time, a corrected delineation for California, only one of the improvements made by De l'Isle from information collected by the Paris Observatory. De l'Isle also corrected the length of the Mediterranean (which men had been navigating and charting as 60 degrees for centuries) to an accurate 42 degrees. Improvements initiated by De l'Isle, in fact, were so numerous that he is credited with almost single-handedly elevating France to a dominating position geographically" (Portraits of the World 53).
Lloyd Brown sums up De l'Isle's contributions to
science in stating that he "undertook a complete reform of
a system of geography that had been in force since the
second century, and by the time he was twenty-five he had
very nearly accomplished his purpose" (Story of
Maps, p. 242). De l'Isle indicates discoveries in the
southern hemisphere with tracks of Magellan (1520),
Mendaña (1568 and 1595), Quiros, Le Maire and
Schouten (1616), Halley and Dampier (1700), and Tasman
(1642). Because of the importance of the cartographer and
the unusual perspective and restrained style of these two
large and handsome maps, the set would be desirable for any
well-rounded collection on the history of cartographic
science and art, particularly in impressions from the
original Paris plates of early date, which remain the
rarest and most significant.
($1,000-2,000)
$2,300.00
"One of the most elaborately engraved maps ever published that includes North America" (Schwartz & Ehrenberg)
123. [MAP: AMERICAS (CALIFORNIA AS AN ISLAND)]. CHÂTELAIN, Henri Abraham. Carte très curieuse de la Mer du Sud, contenant des remarques nouvelles et très utiles non seulement sur les ports et îles de cette mer, Mais aussy sur les principaux Pays de l’Amérique tant Septentrionale que Meridionale, Avec les Noms & la Route des Voyageurs par qui la découverte en a été faite.... [Amsterdam, 1719]. Copperplate engraved map. Four sheets joined to make two, overall dimensions: 82.0 x 141.0 cm. (32-1/4 x 55-1/2 inches). Black and white. Scale: 1 inch = approximately 260 miles. Grandiose and elaborately engraved map of the Americas with highly decorative vignettes within rococo framework, numerous ornate cartouches that include illustrations of beavers at Niagara Falls; Native Americans hunting and fishing; cod fishery; Strait of Gibraltar; Cape of Good Hope; two very involved cartouches on lower sheet with maps and city plans (Acapulco, Panama, mouth of Mississippi, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, Mexico City, Rio de la Plata, Havana, Vera Cruz, etc.), Native American customs (including Aztec pyramid and human sacrifice), costumed groups, sugar mill, mining, turtle fishing, flora and fauna; nine portrait medallions of explorers; inset of Islands of the Mariannas; routes of explorers traced on map. Very fine, printed on excellent quality, heavy paper. Very strong impression.
First printing. Schwartz & Ehrenberg,
The Mapping of America, p. 142 & Plate 85.
Koeman (Châtelain) 7:11. Leighly, California as an
Island, 142 & Plate XX: "Although California is
shown as an island in the old way, its outlines are fading.
The parts of its coast considered speculative are drawn
with a very light line, and printed on the island is a
notation to the effect that some moderns now believe the
northern part of California to be attached to the American
continent." Lowery 291. McLaughlin, The Mapping of
California as an Island 190. Moreland & Bannister,
Antique Maps: A Collector’s Handbook, p. 132:
"One of the finest maps of the Americas." Portinaro &
Knirsch, The Cartography of North America Plate
CVIII: "Châtelain’s large copperplate of the
Atlantic and Pacific basins is both lavish in its
decoration and full of eccentricity." Tooley, The
Mapping of America ("California as an Island") 80 &
p. 130: "Of interest for showing some of the missions
established in Southern California." Wagner, Northwest
Coast 511. See Wheat, Transmississippi West 94.
The map, of wall chart proportions, is a veritable
pictorial encyclopedia of the Western hemisphere, including
Japan and Australia at the left and the Western shores of
the Old World at right. The pictorial vignettes are
spectacular.
($6,000-10,000) $7,475.00
An English Volley in The Great Map War
Item 124 -
detail
124. [MAP: MISSISSIPPI VALLEY]. SENEX, John. A Map of Louisiana and of the River Mississipi. [London, 1719/1721]. Engraved map of North America from Chesapeake Bay to the Rio del Norte. 48.7 x 58.0 cm. (19-3/16 x 22-1/2 inches). Original outline coloring. Scale: 1 inch = approximately 22 leagues. Dedication to William Law within a large ornamental cartouche illustrating a female angel blowing a horn, two putti with cornucopias (one with fruit, the other with money), old man supporting a gushing urn (symbolizing the source of the Mississippi), two putti laboring in mines. Blank margins lightly browned and with a few short tears, generally a fine copy of this rare, important, and highly interesting map.
Senex's English version of De l'Isle's prototype map, Carte de la Louisiane et cours du Mississipi (1718), "the first detailed map of the Gulf Region and the Mississippi, the first printed map to show Texas, the first to show the land routes of earlier centuries--De Soto in 1539-40 and his successor Moscoso in 1542, Cavelier in 1687, Tonty in 1702, and the recent route of Denis in 1713 and 1716" (Tooley, "French Mapping of the Americas" [MCS 33] 43). Cumming 182. Lowery 297. Martin & Martin 19 (citing the 1718 original): "[De l'Isle's] most important achievement for North American cartography.... Carte de la Louisiane was widely plagiarized. It was copied outright in both English and Latin versions (with suitably altered legends and place names) within a year of its first appearance." Nebenzahl, The Compass 42:26: "The Mississippi Bubble map, dedicated to William, the father of John Law, the man responsible for the great speculative venture meant to exploit the resources of French Louisiana. The spectacular collapse of the scheme in 1720 ruined many European investors, but made Louisiana famous." Phillips, Atlases 563. Schwartz & Ehrenberg, The Mapping of America 141. Wheat, Transmississippi West 100 (giving date 1719; see also p. 67, where he notes that the original map shows "distinct advances in the mapping of the American West"). Other maps in Senex's atlas are dated 1719, and it seems reasonable, following Wheat, that Senex would have produced his map immediately following the De l'Isle furor.
Senex is often called a plagiarist of De l'Isle's
map, but his map is also a highly interesting historical
rebuttal of that map. It is generally accepted that De
l'Isle provided a "mother map" with the first accurate
depiction of the Mississippi, but he also produced a
politically chauvinistic document that claimed vast
territories for the French and marked the beginning of a
cartographic war, known as the War of the Maps (which ended
in the actual French and Indian War). In De l'Isle's map
Florida appears unmistakably as part of the French
territory of Louisiana which stretches to the Rio Grande
(the name "Florida" does not even appear on his map);
Carolina is described as belonging to the French by right
of discovery and possession; British colonies are
restricted to the area east of the Alleghenies. Both
Britain and Spain protested. Senex's map, which appeared in
his A New General Atlas (London, 1721),
cartographically removed several of the French claims,
restoring the name Florida and ignoring the French
possession of Carolina. Of significant Texas interest,
Senex follows De l'Isle by translating into English the
first appearance of a form of the name "Texas" on a printed
map (Mission de los Teijas established in 1716, near
present-day Nacogdoches on the Trinity River and referring
to the earliest of the Spanish missions in East Texas).
Also, like De l'Isle, Senex records St. Denis' explorations
through Texas, including the missions and presidio founded
by him.
($2,500-5,000) $2,875.00
Another English Salvo in the Great Map War
125. [MAP: NORTH AMERICA (CALIFORNIA AS AN ISLAND)]. MOLL, H. A New Map of the North Parts of America claimed by France under ye names of Louisiana, Mississipi, Canada and New France with ye Adjoyning Territories of England and Spain.... [London], 1720. Engraved map. Four half sheets joined, overall 61.4 x 102.6 cm. (24-1/4 x 40-3/8 inches). Original outline coloring. Scale: 1 inch = approximately 90 English miles. Armorial dedicatory cartouche at lower left; title within decorated border; A scale of English miles for longitude at lower right; compass rose. Inset engraved illustration at upper left: The Indian Fort of Sasquesahanock. Inset maps on right: The Harbour of Annapolis Royal; and A Map of ye Mouth of Mississipi and Mobile Rivers &c. Two clean splits at folds (8-3/4 inch at upper right fold; 1 inch at lower left), otherwise a fine copy of this very rare, early English rendering of De l'Isle's 1718 map of the Mississippi Valley.
Although Moll appears at first to copy De l'Isle's
1718 Carte de la Louisiane et cours du Mississipi,
the present map is, in fact, another English counterblast
to De l'Isle (see preceding item). Cumming (pp. 43-44):
"Moll calls upon the English noblemen, gentlemen, and
merchants interested in Carolina to note the
'Incroachments' of the French map on their 'Properties' and
on the land of their Indian allies. The map presents
details of the Southeast found in no other printed map. The
chief source of this information is a large, unsigned,
undated manuscript map in the Public Record Office, from
which Moll took much information on trading paths, Indian
tribes, French, Spanish, and English forts and settlements,
rivers, and other topographical data." McLaughlin, The
Mapping of California as an Island 197: "Shows southern
part of California and Gulf of California, which widens at
north." Leighly 180. Phillips, America, p. 567;
Atlases 554. Reinhartz, "Herman Moll, Geographer: An
Early Eighteenth-Century European View of the American
Southwest," pp. 32-33 in Reinhartz & Colley, The
Mapping of the American Southwest (see also Fig. 2.5
& p. 81, no source listed): "Moll's mapping of Texas
and northern Mexico is both informative and appealing. He
was best at coastal geography, depicting with some accuracy
the coastal features, barrier islands (e.g., Padre Island),
and identified rivers emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The
rivers often continue deep into the interior, where there
is less detail, but Moll does indicate various Indian
tribes.... But most intriguing are Moll's notations. For
example, he mentions several times the Spanish cattle gone
wild&emdash;the famous Texas longhorns of later
years&emdash;by noting 'Country full of Beeves' or
'This Country has vast and Beautiful Plains, all level and
full of Greens, which afford Pasture to an infinite number
of Beeves and other Creatures' in East Texas near the 'R.
Salado.' Nearby also is noted, 'Many Nations [of Indians]
on ye heads of this Branches [of several rivers] who use
Horses and Trade with the French and Spaniards.'" Moll, who
cannot restrain expressing his opinions in his maps,
restores the English claim to the territory east of the
Mississippi and gives back part of Florida to Spain; in the
Advertisement text, Moll states: All within the
Blew Colour of this Map, shows what is Claim'd by France
under the Names of LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPI &c. According
to a French Map published at Paris with the French King's
Privelege. The Yellow Colour what they allow ye
English. The Red, Spain....
($6,000-10,000)
$6,900.00
Item 126 -
detail
126. [MAP: AMERICAS]. DE L'ISLE, Guillaume. Carte d'Amerique dressée pour l'usage du Roy.... Paris: Chez l'Auteur Sur le Quay de l'Horloge avec Privilege, 1722. Engraved map of North and South America, including the Atlantic, western Europe, and Africa. 48.7 x 61.5 cm. (19 x 24-1/4 inches). Original outline coloring. Scale not stated. Ornamental title cartouche at lower left; Advertisement at lower right within decorative curtain; compass rose. Fine.
State 2, with Carte d'Amerique in plain black
lettering. This is one of De l'Isle's three original maps
of North America which were the prototypes for the entire
eighteenth century. Tooley, "French Mapping of the
Americas" (MCS 33) 2 (Plates 1 & 2) & p. 6:
"Few maps had as long a life as some of De l'Isle's. His
map of America of 1722 was republished until 1830, revised
in places but basically unchanged." Wagner, Northwest
Coast 523 & p. 142: "After Nicolas de Frondat's
voyage eastward across the Pacific in 1709 De l'Isle made a
radical change, no doubt because of information obtained
from him.... C. Mendocino was removed to about
251ºE.... C. San Lucas was also moved to about
265ºE, thus shortening the longitude of California to
about 14º, nearly the actual difference. In 1722 [De
l'Isle] produced his last map of America. On this the
northwest coast is quite different from that on the map of
1700." Texas, Chicago, and Detroit are located at an early
date, and Indian tribes are located.
($750-1,500)
$862.50
Item 127 -
detail
127. [MAP: MEXICO]. AA, Pieter van der. Mexique ou Nouvelle Espagne, Suivant les Nouvelles Observations de Messrs de l'Academie Royale des Sciences.... Leiden, [1729]. Engraved map. 22.6 x 29.0 cm. (8-7/8 x 11-7/16 inches). Black and white. Scale: 1 inch = approximately 50 French leagues. Masonry-type title with illustrations on either side: Left, man in European dress holding a sword over two bound Native Americans on their knees before him, and right, Neptune on a seashell drawn by sea horses, spouting whale, ship; small compass rose. Stab holes at far left blank margin where removed, otherwise fine.
This rare and unusual map is typical of van der
Aa's, decorative style. A distinguished bibliophile and
collector, van der Aa was one of the most successful
publishers of his time, concentrating on books of voyages
and discovery. This position enabled him to obtain a great
deal of early information about America. Phillips,
America, p. 406; Atlases 3485. Published in
van der Aa's La Galerie Agréable du Monde
(1729, 66 parts in 27 vols.), which Frederik Muller
(Catalogue pt. 1, pp. 1-2) describes as a
"stupendous publication contain[ing] above 3,000 plates and
maps, many by the best Dutch engravers.... The work is
rare." The map depicts the region of Mesoamerica, from
South Texas to Costa Rica, crowded with place names and
religious establishments.
($300-500) $575.00
128. [MAP: NORTH AMERICA]. FILLOEUL, [Pierre?]. Amerique septentrionale. N.p., [ca. 1720-40?]. Engraved map of North and Central America. 23.8 x 39.1 cm. (9-3/8 x 15-3/8 inches). Original outline coloring and shading. Scale not stated. Signed in print at lower left: filloeul sculpsit. Upper left: Tome 2 page 343. Creased where formerly folded, two old, neat repairs.
California appears as a peninsula, and the west
coast above California is omitted. The configuration of the
map suggests a date in the early eighteenth century, which
is also when engraver Pierre Filloeul would have been
active.
($400-800)
Item 129 - detail
129. [MAP: NORTH AMERICA]. DE L'ISLE, Guillaume. L'Amerique Septentrionale Dressée sur les Observationes de Mrs. de l'Academie Royale des Sciences.... Amsterdam: R. & J. Ottens, [ca. 1730-1750]. Engraved map. 45.0 x 59.7 cm. (17-3/4 x 23-1/2 inches). Original full coloring. Scale: 1 inch = approximately 225 miles. Large pictorial cartouche at upper right with Neptune, river gods, dolphin, seashell. Scale and advertisement within ornamental frames at upper left. Very fine, with handsome original coloring.
A fine Dutch reissue of De l'Isle's 1700 foundation
map of North America, the first accurate mapping of the
Mississippi Valley, as well as the first to revert to a
peninsular California. Reinier and Josua Ottens were active
from 1725-50. "Ottens' greatest fame comes from the
voluminous atlases assembled to order. A small number of
these so-called 'Atlas factice', splendid copies with
gorgeous illumination, have escaped destruction" (Koeman
III, p. 86). Tooley, "French Mapping of the Americas"
(MCS 33) 34n. Wagner, Northwest Coast 459n
& pp. 140-42.
($750-1,200) $862.50
130. [MAP: GULF OF MEXICO]. MOLL, Herman. Florida, called by ye French Louisiana &c. [London, ca. 1732-1736]. Engraved map of Florida and the Gulf Coast region. 20.1 x 27.4 cm. (7-7/8 x 10-3/4 inches). Original outline coloring. Scale not stated. Left blank margin rough where removed from a bound book, otherwise very fine.
Intermediate state. The first state of the map bears
the date 1728, and is entitled Florida calle'd [sic]
by ye French Louisiana... (see Cumming
201). Reinhartz depicts a later state of the map
with additions and altered title East & West
Florida..., in his article "Herman Moll, Geographer: An
Early Eighteenth-Century European View of the American
Southwest" in Reinhartz & Colley, The Mapping of the
American Southwest, see Fig. 2.6 & p. 79; source
listed as Moll's oft reissued Atlas Minor, 1727 and
after). Comparing the present map with the subsequent state
illustrated in Reinhartz, differences include the
following: Present map does not have New Orleans, but it is
present on the later version; present version labels the
Mississippi River as R. St. Louis and locates its
upper reaches too far west, whereas the later version
correctly labels and locates the Mississippi River; present
version does not locate the Cherokee, but they are found on
the subsequent version; the present version calls the Ohio
River Sault R., but this is corrected on the altered
version; southern Florida labeled Neck of Florida,
which is altered to East Florida on the subsequent
state. Cumming 201n: "One of the early printed maps to give
the roads and trading paths from Carolina westward."
Phillips, Atlases 577.
($500-800)
$575.00
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