HONDIUS, Henricus. [California as an Island]
America Septentrionalis. Amsterdam, Jan Jansson, c.1644. French text edition, 460 x 550mm.
A highly decorative map of North America from the "Nouvel Atlas", first issued 1636, this is the second state with Jansson's name in the cartouche lower left. Because of the prominence of the Hondius business this map did more to promote the misconception of California as an island than any other (Speed's map, although published a decade earlier, was only published with an English text). McLAUGHLIN: 6; BURDEN: 245, 'beautifully engraved'.
[Ref: 7924]    £3,000.00 ($4,620 • €3,630 rates)

HONDIUS, Henricus. [A Classic Map, showing California as an Island]
America Septentrionalis. Amsterdam: Heirs of Jan Jansson, 1666, Latin text. Original colour. 470 x 555mm. Small split in bottom centrefold margin.
A highly decorative map of North America, first issued 1636, this is the second state (of three) with Jansson's name in the cartouche lower left. Because of the prominence of the Hondius business this map did more to promote the misconception of California as an island than any other (Speed's map, although published a decade earlier, was only published with an English text). This example was published in the 'Atlas Contractus', a two-volume atlas, published two years after Jansson's death by his son-in-law, Jan Jansson van Waesbergen. McLAUGHLIN: 6; BURDEN: 245, 'beautifully engraved'; KOEMAN: Me 184 & 185.
[Ref: 8124]    £3,500.00 ($5,390 • €4,235 rates)

SANSON, Nicolas. Amerique Septentrionale par. N.Sanson... Reveue et changeé en plusieurs endroits suivant les Memoires les plus recents. Par G.Sanson... Paris, Pierre Mariette, 1669. Original outline colour with additions. 400 x 545mm.
North America, with California as an island and the western Great Lakes open-ended. This map was prepared by Guillaume Sanson, not from his father's landmark atlas map of 1650 but the wall map of 1666, a year before Nicolas's death: the title is in the north-east instead of the north-west and the island of California has the indented northern coastline rather than flat. BURDEN: 404; McLaughlin 45.
[Ref: 9167]    £2,300.00 ($3,542 • €2,783 rates)

SELLER, John. [A scarce sea-chart of Nova Scotia & Newfoundland.]
A Chart Of The Coast Of America From New Found Land To Cape Cod. London, c.1674, original colour, 420 x 550mm
Published in Seller's Atlas Maritimus, the earliest general marine atlas produced in England, this was the first English chart of New England waters. It clearly shows the northern navigation routes with soundings, as well as the islands and lucrative fishing banks off the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Boston and Charlestown are also located and named. While the Atlas Maritimus was Seller's first attempt at breaking the Dutch monopoly on the publication of nautical atlases, he is also credited with the inception of The English Pilot, the standard guide for English navigators throughout the 18th century. BURDEN 444
[Ref: 10752]    £3,000.00 ($4,620 • €3,630 rates)

DU VAL, Pierre. [Eastern Seaboard & Great Lakes]
Canada. Paris, 1682. Original outline colour. 105 x 120mm.
The Eastern Seaboard, from Hudson's Bay down to Chespeake Bay, with the western Great Lakes open-ended. Orignally published 1660, this is the third state: New York is marked 'N.Amsterdam al=Manhate' and Chesapeake is named. BURDEN: 351, state 3 of 4.
[Ref: 10800]    £350.00 ($539 • €424 rates)

CORONELLI, Vincenzo Maria. [Central USA Gore]
[Central USA Gore-sheet]. Venice, c.1690. Plate size 430 x 110mm at top, spreading to 260mm at bottom.
A gore sheet, in typical Coronelli style, shaped to be pasted onto a globe but bound into a volume instead. It shows Hudson's Bay, the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, Florida and the Bahamas, and the Gulf of Mexico west to the Rio Bravo. Among the vignettes are cannibals, swordfish, alligators and indian villiages. An unusual and decorative item.
This item is currently on reserve

CORONELLI, Vincenzo Maria. [Two-sheet map]
America Settentrionale Colle Nuoue Scoperte fin all'Anno 1688. Venice, 1691. Two sheets, ea. c.605 x 450mm.
A large and highly decorative two-sheet map of North America, with two large cartouches and many vignettes from De Bry engraved in the interior and seas. Despite showing California as an island the map contains the most current information: as map-maker to Louis XIV Coronelli had access to the most recent reports by French explorers, including Marquette (1673) and La Salle (1682). Cumming notes that 'his delineation of the Great Lakes is the best and most accurate on a general map before the eighteenth century'. CUMMING: Exploration of North America, p.148.
[Ref: 7619]    £9,400.00 ($14,476 • €11,374 rates)

MULLER, Johann Ulrich. [Uncommon Miniature Map of North America]
America Septentrionalis. Ulm, 1692. 70 x 80mm, set in text.
Charming miniature map, with a letterpress text in German. California is an island. McLAUGHLIN: 108.
[Ref: 8884]    £270.00 ($416 • €327 rates)

JAILLOT, Alexis-Hubert. [A rare first-state issue, with California as an Island]
Amerique Septentrionale Divisée En Ses Principales Parties. Paris, 1694, first state, 485 x 595mm In excellent condition, very crisp impression.
This very fine and rare, first-state map after Sanson and re-engraved by Jaillot for "L'Atlas Français", illustrates one of the most famous and long lived of cartographical misconceptions, that of California being an island, which was first promulgated by Henry Briggs from a captured Spanish chart he claimed he had seen in the possession of Dutch navigators, this misconception was still widely believed as late as the 1790's. Also shown are the Great Lakes with open ends issuing into the sea and the mysterious island of Iesso which appears off the coast of California. The title and dedicatory inscription contained in a decorative baroque cartouche flanked by Indian Herms brandishing clubs and bows and surmounted by parrots with an armadillo and anthromorphic cat below. There is also a Latin dedicatory title at the top: "America Septentrionalis in suas Praecipuas Partes Divisa, Ad Usum Serenissimi Burgundiae Ducis," BURDEN (II) 700
[Ref: 8261]    £1,500.00 ($2,310 • €1,815 rates)

MORTIER, Pieter. [English Colonies in America]
Carte Nouvelle de L'Amerique Angloise Contenant La Virginie, Mary-Land, Caroline, Pensylvania Nouvelle Jorck, N.Jarsey N: France , et Les Terres Nouvellement Descouerte... Amsterdam, c.1705. Original colour. 605 x 920mm.
A large and decorative map of North America east of the Mississippi. Untranslated English phrases, like 'Copper Mine' and 'Mines of Iron', point to the map being based on the Morden-Brown map of 1695. Cumming states that it is not ususally found in Sanson/Jaillot atlases, but this example was bound in a Mortier issue of Jaillot's 'Atlas Nouveau'. KOEMAN: Mor 1; CUMMING: 129.
[Ref: 8703]    £2,600.00 ($4,004 • €3,146 rates)