Catalog Archive
Auction 111, Lot 58

"Americae nova Tabula", Blaeu, Willem

Subject: Western Hemisphere

Period: 1645 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
21.6 x 16.2 inches
54.9 x 41.1 cm
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This magnificent carte-a-figures map is a superb example of the fine art of decorative cartography and a seventeenth-century European view of the New World. The coastal outlines generally follow Ortelius and Wytfliet with nomenclature from a variety of explorers and colonists. Panels at sides, each with five portraits of the native inhabitants were taken from John White (Virginia), Hans Staden (Brazil) and other early accounts. Across the top are nine town plans including Havana, St. Domingo, Cartegena, Mexico City, Cusco, Potosi, I. la Mocha in Chile, Rio de Janeiro and Olinda in Brazil. This is one of the few maps of the Americas by this famous Dutch cartographer. The map itself is similar to Blaeu's wall map of 1608 with the additional discoveries of Henry Hudson and Tierra del Fuego with Le Maire Strait. This is the fifth state of the plate from a Latin edition with the coastline of Terra Australis Incognita deleted, but the name left behind. Latin text on verso.

References: Burden #189; Goss (Blaeu) p. 156; Tooley (Amer) plt. 169; Van der Krogt (Atlantes) 9000:2.

Condition: B

Good impression and color. Expert repairs along centerfold and short tear in lower blank area of map with a bit of excellent facsimile along fold.

Estimate: $6,000 - $7,000

Unsold

Closed on 6/8/2005

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