Catalog Archive
Auction 160, Lot 82

"La America Dispuesta Segun las Ultimas, y Nuevas Observationes de las Accademia, y de Paris, y de Londres", Gendron, Pedro

Subject: Western Hemisphere - America

Period: 1756 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
20.4 x 18.1 inches
51.8 x 46 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

This is the undated-- and likely later-- state of this rare map of the Americas. It prominently features a Mar de el Ouest in the Pacific Northwest with several islands in it. Juan de la Fuca is credited with discovering the Sea of the West in 1592, and the map shows two straits leading from the Pacific into the sea, one named for de la Fuca and the other for Martin de Aguilar. A note states that Bartholomew de Fonte discovered the area directly above the Sea of the West, and the area to the south of it is labeled Nueva Albion. The mythical land of Taguaio is identified to the north of Megico Nuevo, and the names Tecas and Cenos appear around present-day Texas. Although the map predates the period when Louisiana was under Spanish control, the middle of the country here is labeled as both Luisiana and Florida, suggesting a dual French-Spanish presence in the region. Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England are named along the eastern coast, along with important cities. There are a couple discoveries credited to David Ingles, one a vague stretch of coast in the South Pacific to the west of South America (dated 1687) and the other an entrance off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador (dated 1586), that are mistakenly dated a hundred years apart. Another incomplete fragment of coastline to the south of Tierra del Fuego is attributed to Sir Francis Drake. A decorative cartouche at bottom right features two female figures.

References: McGuirk #32.

Condition: A

A sharp impression on watermarked paper with wide margins. There are a few faint creases in the image, and minor edge chips and edge tears in the blank margins that have been backed with tissue.

Estimate: $1,400 - $1,700

Sold for: $800

Closed on 11/16/2016

Archived