Catalog Archive
Auction 134, Lot 710

"Carte des nouvelles decouvertes entre la partie orient[a]le de l'Asie et l'occid[enta]le de l'Amerique…", Buache, Philip

Subject: North Pacific Ocean, North America, Northeast Asia

Period: 1753 (dated)

Publication: Considerations Geographiques

Color: Hand Color

Size:
12.3 x 8 inches
31.2 x 20.3 cm
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According to the title this rare map was presented to the Academy of Sciences on August 9, 1752. The entire west coast of North America is entirely fictitious north of Cap Blanc. Although very similar to the famous Delisle map of the North Pacific [1750], this map differs considerably. It presents a different arrangement of the apocryphal discoveries of the Spanish admiral Bartholome de Fonte that supposedly formed a Northwest Passage: Grande Eau, Lac Valasco, Lac Belle and Lac de Font. There is an enormous Sea of the West, which was supposedly discovered by Juan de Fuca in 1592. Here Buache added yet another myth with the Chinese colony, Fou-sang, located between the Entrée de Fuca and the Archipel de St. Lazare. A murky landmass appears in the general location of the Alaskan peninsula with a note crediting both the Russians and Admiral de Fonte. Kamchatka and the eastern coast of Siberia are shown relatively accurately along with the discoveries of the Russians in 1723, 1732 and 1741, the tracks of Bering's first and second voyages, and Delisle's voyage with Capt. Tchirikow in 1741. Both the map and a sheet of French text have been pasted onto the folio sheet, as issued.

References: Lowery pp. 298-300; Wagner #573; cf Schwartz & Ehrenberg p.161.

Condition: A+

There is very faint toning in the margins, still overall fine with original color.

Estimate: $3,000 - $4,000

Sold for: $1,800

Closed on 12/1/2010

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