A Unique Mirror Image of the North Pacific with the Island of California

"[North Pacific Ocean] Fol. I.D. Fig. I", Scherer, Heinrich

This bizarre and unusual map shows a mirror image of the North Pacific with the coastlines of America and Asia reversed, as if viewed from the center of the earth. The island of California is depicted with a heavily indented coastline. Japan has a curious shape with Honshu joined to a bulbous shaped Hokkaido by a narrow isthmus. The seas are filled with strange creatures and exquisitely engraved galleons, and the land is teeming with exotic animals. Native figures (each holding an exotic bird) support a distance measure that stretches between the continents. Inset with a large map of the Eastern hemisphere centered on Asia, also in mirror image.

References: McLaughlin #159.

Condition: A

A crisp impression, issued folding, and remargined at left with old paper to accommodate framing.