Southeastern Sheet of the Reduced-Size Edition of Popple's Map

"Nouvelle Carte Particuliere de l'Amerique ou sont Exactement Marquees les Iles de Bermude la Iamaique, Saint Domingue, les Antilles, la Terre Ferme, &c.", Popple/Covens & Mortier

This is the southeast sheet of of Covens & Mortier's edition of A Map of the British Empire in America, Popple's monumental map of North America. Popple's map was the most important map to detail the country before John Mitchell's map of 1755. Popple based his map on firsthand information gathered over several years at the Board of Trade and Plantations. First issued in London on twenty sheets in 1733, it was the first large-scale British map to provide an overall view of the eastern half of North America. As tensions grew between the colonial powers, the map became immensely influential throughout Europe and was copied by several cartographers. Covens & Mortier's version is very desirable due to its smaller size and the fact that each map is completely enclosed within its own border, so that it stands on its own without the other sheets.

The sheet covers the region from Bermuda through the Antilles to the north coast of South America. The map is beautifully engraved and intensively detailed with the trade winds graphically depicted. The map is adorned with a fine compass rose and sailing ships, including a fabulous sea battle between a British squadron under Charles Wager and the Spanish treasure fleet off Cartagena.

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Condition: B+

A beautifully dark impression with contemporary color on a watermarked sheet. There are a couple splits along the centerfold, the longest of which extends 1.5" at right, and a short edge tear at right that just crosses the neatline.