Antique Maps, Charts, Atlases and Globes for Sale at Auction

Pierre Mortier's unique world map drawn on Mercator's projection. California is shown as an island and the Detroit d'Anian 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 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. The most interesting features of the map are the five spheres presented along the top. These depict Day and Night, the Flood, the phases of the moon, and the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. The map was precisely engraved by Jan van Luchenburg (signature at lower left).

A very nice impression on a sheet with paper professionally and skillfully added to the upper and lower margins by the leaf casting method, and facsimile of the lower neatline.