Chatelain, Henri Abraham (1684-1743). Carte Très Curieuse De La Mer Du Sud. Mais aussy sur les principaux pays de l'Amerique… avec les noms & la route des voyageurs par qui la découverte en a été faite. (Amsterdam, 1719). Uncolored, 32½ x 56". One map on 4 sheets, this spectacular map of the Pacific and Americas, was published in the sixth volume of Chatelain's
Atlas Historique, which was devoted to the Americas. It shows America in the middle (with California as an island), Europe on one side and the Pacific with Japan and China on the other.
There are more than 35 insets and vignettes. Nine medallions at the top center portray the explorers Columbus, Vespucci, Magellan, Drake, Dampier, Le Maire, Schouten, Olivier van Noort and L'Hermite, and the tracks of their voyages are marked on the map. The marginal vignettes range from narrative scenes representing colonial economies based on beaver, cod, and sugar to geographic insets of locations such as the Mississippi delta, Niagara Falls,and the Cape of Good Hope, as well as towns such as Panama, Acapulco, Lima, Baldive La Ville de Mexique, La Conception, Rio de la Plata, La Havane, St. Sebastien, and Vera Cruz.
"One of the most elaborately engraved maps of the Western Hemisphere ever produced." (Schwartz & Ehrenberg, p.142).
Tooley, California as an Island 80. Mc Laughlin, 190.
Estimated Value $10,000 - 15,000.
The Hunter Collection of Antique Maps
