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A fine example of the first generally obtainable world map to include the name "America." It was based Martin Waldseemuler's World map of 1513, which was called "the Admiral's Map" because while showing the first glimmers of the New World (Western Hemisphere) he was correcting the misconception that Amerigo Vespucci should have the lands named after him. From Strassburg in 1522 Laurent Fries issued this reduced version of Waldseemuller's work and placed his own initials at he end of the title, which ran along the top. Fries also added a rope border that intertwined with labels giving the names of the various winds of the world. Historians have complained that he could have easily avoided many errors such as rendering England and Scotland as separate islands and confusing the Indian subcontinent as two peninsulas instead of one. Still, Fries was recording and disseminating the knowledge that was generally available. His information would not be totally obsolete until works benefited by Magellan's voyage would be conveyed by Oronce Fine and Sebastian Munster. The same woodblock was used in Strassburg in 1522 and 1525, in Lyons in 1535, and this printing in 1541. Prior to the last printing a crack developed in the wood block that is evident in the central part of south Asia. $9,500
Thomas Holme. "A Mapp of Ye Improved Part of Pensilvania in America, Divided into Countyes Townships and Lotts." With inset map: "The City Philadelphia two Miles in Length and one in Breadth." London: Thomas Jefferys. [1687]-ca. 1749. 21 1/4 x 15 3/4. Engraving. Some small spots of old surface wear. Expertly conserved and lined. Very good condition. Burden: 669; Stevens & Tree: 68; Winterthur Portfolio 6: p. 45.
When William Penn received a grant from Charles II for the 45,000 square miles of land now called Pennsylvania, he was the recipient of huge potential wealth. For this wealth to be realized, Penn had to sell parcels of his land to new settlers. Not only would this raise cash, but it would increase the value of the land that remained in Penn's hands. Like any savvy developer, Penn used various means to publicize the sale of property in his grant. One of the most effective was a printed promotional brochure which included a map of the projected town of Philadelphia, the "City of Brotherly Love." Penn envisioned his town as a mile wide band extending two miles from the Delaware River to the Schuylkill River. Penn had his surveyor general, Thomas Holme, make up a plan for the town, which Holme did with a simple, yet elegant grid of streets enhanced by the regular placement of five parks. Once the map of the city of Philadelphia was completed, Holmes set out to produce a map of the territory west of the city. The resulting large, seven sheet wall map, encompassed southeastern Pennsylvania from Bucks County to New Castle County, and included the original grid plan for Philadelphia. This impressive cartographic document was published in 1687.
Within a few years, and almost certainly before 1699, Holme produced a reduced version of this map intended to be more practical for general use. One third the size of the original, the smaller map lacks the printed description at the bottom and shows minor changes in property ownership. William Penn's goal was for his colony, both in the city and in the country, to become thoroughly developed. Toward that end, Penn made it so that purchasing land in the country automatically entitled the landowner to several lots in the city. Showing both Philadelphia and its surrounding environs, this map would have been of great use to these early Pennsylvania landowners. This is the third state of the smaller version of the Holme map, probably after Thomas Jefferys acquired the plate. It is not only historically informative and very rare, but is also one of the earliest available printed map of Philadelphia and bordering counties. $40,000
A delightful map of the British Colonies at the beginning of the eighteenth century; a map so popular as to have a nickname, i.e. the "Beaver Map." This map was drawn and published by Herman Moll. Moll was a Dutch émigré to England after 1680, who established his own business and became England's most prominent map publisher. Moll's prolific output covered a wide range from loose maps to atlases. His work was highly regarded and often copied due to the quality of detail found in his maps. Moll is particularly known for the use of wonderful decorative illustrations and fascinating text, and on no map is this more true than on the "Beaver Map." The map shows the eastern coast of North America from Newfoundland to South Carolina, and there are four insets; 'Louisiana,' 'Carolina,' North America, and Charleston. The detail of the maps is excellent, indicating and naming rivers, towns, bays, marshes, churches, roads, lakes, and other topographical features. Moll always included much text in his maps, and here he gives information about Indian tribes, political situations, and other such details. One of the notes on the map is a long description of the postal routes throughout the colonies, another describes a treaty between the English and French, and another is about the Iroquois Indians. A very elaborate cartouche is placed near the center, dedicating the map to Walter Dowglass. The crowning aspect of the map, the feature from which it derives its name, is the illustration showing beavers near Niagara Falls, "A View of ye Industry of ye Beavers of Canada in making Dams..." This view, derived from a map by De Fer, shows Niagara Falls, based on Hennepin, in the background, with a large colony of beavers in the foreground. These beavers are shown cutting down trees, and then slinging the wood over their shoulders as they march along in single file, on their hind feet, to add the wood to the dam. This anthropomorphic illustration, together with the other wonderful details of the map, make this one of the most desirable maps of North America from any age. $26,000
Nicholas Scull. "…Map of the improved Part of the Province of Pennsylvania…" Philadelphia: N. Scull, January 1, 1759. Separately issued "saddle-bag" map, dissected in 24 sections and mounted on linen. With original slip-case. 30 1/4 x 60. Engraving by James Turner. Early hand color. Excellent condition. Framed to museum standards with UV-filtering glazing.
A superb example of one of most important American made maps of the eighteenth century, the first map exclusively of the province of Pennsylvania. The map is the work of Nicholas Scull II, a cartographer and surveyor, who followed his father into the profession. In 1719, Nicholas became deputy surveyor of Philadelphia County, served as sheriff in the early 1740s and then ascended to the Surveyor Generalship of Pennsylvania in 1748. Most infamously, he was an official observer of the Walking Purchase of 1737 and offered testimony twenty years later at a hearing to determine the fairness of the procedure. Historians have speculated that this testimony, which favored proprietors Thomas and Richard Penn, is what earned Scull the funding for his seminal map of Pennsylvania.
Dedicated to the Penns, Scull's was the first map to document just the province of Pennsylvania, taking in the vast range of "improved" territory from the Delaware River to the Allegheny Mountains. Drawing on the reports of Major Joseph Shippen, Colonel John Armstrong, John Watson and others for cartographic information, Scull borrowed aesthetic elements from the work of Lewis Evans, whose style of pyramidal shaded mountain ranges appear in neat, single rows on Scull's map. Here, many features appear for the first time, including Indian paths and settlements as well as forts, iron forges, meetinghouses, inns, and gentleman's seats. Once he had finished drawing his seminal map, Scull, a founding member of Franklin's Junto, turned it over to another of Franklin's protégés, an engraver named James Turner. Turner completed the work in Philadelphia, making this the first map of Pennsylvania to be printed in America. Any map published in America in the mid-eighteenth century is rare, but especially "saddle-bag" maps like this one, intended for carrying around and using. In every sense, this scarce map represents an important moment in the history of cartography. $110,000
William G. De Brahm. "A Map of South Carolina and a Part of Georgia, containing the Whole Sea-Coast; all the Islands, Inlets, Rivers, Creeks, Parishes, Townships, Boroughs, Roads, and Bridges: As Also, Several Plantations, with their Proper Boundary-Lines, their Names and the Names of their Proprietors . . .." London: Thomas Jefferys, 1757. Two sheets, each 26 x 47 1/2. Engraving by Thomas Jefferys. Hand color. The sheets were once joined so that the bottom of the top half and the top of the bottom half had margins removed. These strips have been saved and could be reattached. Some very minor stains and wear at old folds. Overall, excellent condition. Ref: Cumming-DeVorsey: 310.
The first edition of a mother map of the American southeast, William De Brahm's monumental map of the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. It reflects the first scientific survey of this coast and navigable waters. De Brahm mentions using previous surveys by Gascoigne, Bryan and Bull, but most of the work was his own. De Brahm arrived in Georgia in 1751 with a group of German immigrants. He advertised his intent to create a map of the Georgia and South Carolina coast the following year and to do this he spent years traveling and surveying the region extensively. In 1754 he was appointed surveyor for Georgia and this impressive map helped get him the appointed as Surveyor-General for the Southern District of North America in 1764. The amount of information over such a vast area is amazing and the large scale of about one inch for five miles produces a most impressive cartographic document. Along the coast from northern border of South Carolina to St. Mary's River accurate information is presented of the islands, river mouths, inlets, and other passages necessary for sailing vessels along the coast and inland. Also shown are the parishes, settlements and other property lots along the coast and inland along the major rivers where settlement had progressed by the middle of the eighteenth century. A number of the depicted townships in the interior were created by the South Carolina government as the first line of defense against hostile Indian tribes and also French encroachments. Typically of the period, the map has an elaborate, decorative cartouche showing indigo production, which was so important to the economy in the region in the middle of the nineteenth century. Of all the great eighteenth century maps of British America, this map of the southern frontier is one of the rarest. $65,000
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