Catalog Archive
Auction 130, Lot 397

"Mappa Aestivarum Insularum, alias Barmudas Dictarum…", Blaeu, Willem

Subject: Bermuda

Period: 1631 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
21 x 15.8 inches
53.3 x 40.1 cm
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This magnificent map is based on the famous survey by John Norwood of the Bermuda Company in 1618. The map shows the division into the original eight tribes and shows the various landowners, with their names in a table below the map. The beautiful title cartouche features Neptune astride the Royal Arms, holding a sailing ship. Further adorned with scale cartouches, coats of arms and a compass rose. The map uses a unique device to show Bermuda's correct proportion and position in the North Atlantic by superimposing this map over a smaller scale map of the Atlantic with the coastlines of Britain, North America and Hispaniola, with a tiny island of Bermuda appearing just beneath the title cartouche. Dutch text on verso.

References: Goss (Blaeu) #72, p. 166; Palmer (MCC-19) #7.

Condition: A

Original color with just a hint of toning.

Estimate: $2,000 - $2,400

Sold for: $1,700

Closed on 12/2/2009

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