Search Results: Americas: General, North from Bryars and Bryars

Nuremberg, 1746. Copper engraving, 50 x 57 cm, original hand colour, blank verso. Map of the Americas prepared for the Homann firm by Johann Matthias Hase, professor of mathematics in Wittemberg, on his stereographic horizontal projection; Hase died in 1742, and many of his maps were published posthumously. Hase’s map replaced one of 1710, engraved by the founder of the Homann business, Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724). After Homann's death the business was continued by his son, Johann Christoph, and then by the Homann Heirs (his friend Johann Michael Franz and his stepsister's husband, the engraver Johann Georg Ebersberger). Homann’s original map had undergone several revisions (in particular the transition of California from island to peninsula) but although the northwest coast remained little known it was clearly felt that an entirely new map - incorporating the latest discoveries - was appropriate. There is still some wishful thinking (hints at a northwest passage, for example,… Read More

Liverpool, c. 1850. Lithograph, 30 x 23.5 cms, original hand-colour, blank verso. Map

London,, 1922. Engraved chart, 95 x 66 cms, engraved by Davies and Company, black and white (lighthouses/beacons highlighted in colour), first published in 1885 with corrections to 1922, ink stamp to lower right hand corner, folded into 12 panels, blank verso. Covering the mouth of the river, between Rangoon (Yangon) and the sea, showing villages, pagodas, beacons, waterways, sands and soundings; reference notes on creeks and tides; inset plan of the port of Rangoon, the entrance to the China Bakir River (To River) and two coastal profiles. Map

Paris, 1772. Copper engraving, 32 x 36, engraved by R. Spadaccini, blank and white, slight toning to right of centrefold, blank verso. Engraved for Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie, one of the great works of the Enlightenment. Maps depicting the purported voyage of the Spaniard Bartholomew de Fonte, supposedly between Hudson Bay and the Pacific in the mid seventeenth-century, began to be circulated in some numbers about a century later, contributing to speculation about the Northwest passage. Vaugondy follows Thomas Jefferys’ ‘General Map of the discoveries of Admiral de Fonte’ from Theodore Swaine Drage’s ‘The Great Probability of a Northwest Passage’, published by Jefferys in 1768. Jefferys/Vaugondy also incorporates Russian discoveries from Gerard Muller’s map, adopting elements such as the over-large Alaskan peninsula. Pedley, Bel et Utile: the Work of the Robert de Vaugondy Family of Mapmakers, 455. Map

Liverpool, c. 1853. Lithograph, 30.5 x 23.5 cms, original hand-colour, blank verso. Drake’s New Albion marked just north of San Fransico; the new ‘Mormon Settlement’ (Salt Lake City, founded 1847), is also marked. The borders of the former Republic of Texas were disputed, which may account for some minor inaccuracies, although the overall depiction of borders here reflects the settlement reached via the Compromise of 1850, predating the Gadesden Purchase of 1853. Map

London, J. Macgowan, 1780. Copper engraving, 32 x 42.5 cm, modern hand colour, blank verso. Published during the American Revolutionary War, this is one of the earliest maps engraved by John Cary, who became one of the leading cartographic engravers, publishers and globe-makers of the period. His first recorded map seems to have been ‘a plan of the navigable canals’ (1779), and he set up his own business in 1783. Cary’s map covers an area similar to other 18th century British maps, such as Emanuel Bowen’s ‘New & accurate chart of the Western or Atlantic Ocean’ (1744). Map

London, 1882. Lithographed city plan, two sheets joined, sheet size, 43 x 64.5 cm, map 39 x 58.5 cm, original colour, coloured lines denote omnibus routes, blank verso, published in Letts’s Popular Atlas. Ultimately derived from the SDUK but reflecting Haussman’s redevelopment of the city centre under Napoleon III, our example is from one of the last editions of the atlas published by the original firm of stationers, map and diary makers. Charles Letts, grandson of the firm’s founder, remained in business under his own name, but in 1884 the Letts, Son & Co map plates were purchased by Edward Stanford. Map

London, 1882. Lithographed map, 40 x 32.5 cms, original colour, blank verso, from Letts’s Popular Atlas. Our example is from one of the last editions of the atlas published by the original firm of stationers, map and diary makers. Charles Letts, grandson of the firm’s founder, remained in business under his own name, but in 1884 the Letts, Son & Co map plates were purchased by Edward Stanford. Map

New York, 1892. Lithographed in red and black on two sheets, each 38.5 x 80 cms, on thin india paper; one or two small splits and tears along the folds, folding into original brown cloth covers. Ink bookseller’s stamp, “supplied by Rand McNally & Co” on verso. Map

London, c. 1960. Pictorial map of 19th century North America, sheet size 63 x 87.5 cm, compiled and illustrated by Fran Downie, printed in colours, trivial wear to folds, a couple of trivial spots, blank verso. Danny Arnold was a Canadian actor and impresario whose vaudeville and wild west shows were a feature of the British seaside from the late 1950s until the 1970s. He staged performances at the Golden Garter Saloon in Cliftonville Lido, Margate, but also toured popular resorts such as Blackpool and Great Yarmouth and appeared on the BBC. Arnold’s souvenir map was normally sold as a ‘Pictorial Map of The Old West’, as here, but a variant was issued as a tie-in with the 1962 MGM blockbuster Western, ‘How the West was Won’. The map loosely conforms to the boundaries of mid 19th century north America, before the creation of Nebraska Territory in 1854, but like the MGM epic the events depicted on the map span several decades: the Battle of the Alamo (1836) and Custer’s… Read More

Nuremberg, c. 1737. Copper engraving, 51 x 57 cm, original hand colour, upper margin trimmed to platemark, a couple of trivial spots and stains, blank verso. Derived from individual maps of British possessions in North America by Hermann Moll which were published in his 1729 Atlas Minor (revised 1736). Homann’s version arranges four maps one one sheet: Newfoundland and St. Lawrence Bay; New York and New Jersey; Virginia and Maryland; Carolina and Florida (the last mentioning the 1717 Azilia Land Grant in what became Georgia from 1733). There is explanatory text in German at the foot. Of German origin himself, Moll was one of the most prolific map publishers operating in early 18th century London, and the borders on his maps support British claims in the region prior to the French and Indian War. The founder of the Homann business, Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724), was a self-taught copper engraver who founded the leading German cartographic publishing house of the eighteenth-century. He was… Read More

Paris, 1683. Copper engraving, 15 x 10.5 cms, recent hand-colour, French text on verso, from Mallet’s ‘Description de l’Univers’. The upper image is derived from the Smith map of Virginia and shows Wahunsunacock (known by his title, Chief Powhatan) seated in a longhouse; the lower image shows a seventeenth-century Powhatan village. Map

London, c. 1851. Steel engraving, 36 x 25 cms, original outline colour, blank verso; engraved by John Rapkin for the ‘Illustrated Atlas’. Map

London, 1845. Copper engraving, 54 x 60 cms, original hand colour, short marginal split, blank verso; from Wyld's New General Atlas. James Wyld senior established a highly successful firm of map publishers, which passed to his son when he died relatively young in 1836, apparently from 'overwork'. He introduced the new process of lithography to map printing, was a founder member of the Royal Geographical Society and was appointed Geographer to both George IV and William IV. James Wyld junior inherited a thriving business. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and succeeded his father as Geographer to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Map

Washington, Gales &: Seaton,, 1827. Copper engraving, 28.5 x 83 cm, one or two minor restorations to verso, old folds, blank verso. Published in a report to Congress, ‘Letter from the postmaster general transmitting a report of General Bernard, of surveys of routes for a post road from Baltimore to Philadelphia’. The Postmaster General at that time was John McLean (1782-1861); the map was produced under the auspices of Simon Bernard (1799-1836), a member of the Board of Internal Improvement, and William Tell Poussin (1794-1876), a Captain in the [U.S. Army Corps of] Topographical Engineers. The map shows various alternative routes, and is an early example of U.S. government cartographic printing: ‘in May 1826, the U.S. Congress authorized a survey party to explore various new mail routes to Philadelphia. This map appeared as part of a government document the following year’ (Cobb, Mapping Maryland, The William Hackermna Collection (2002). OCLC: 82929312 Map

London, Hunt &: Clarke, , 1828. Lithographed map, approx 62.5 x 21 cm, black and white, slight offsetting, blank verso; published in: ‘A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, leading to the Discovery of the Mississippi and Bloody River’. After a lonely and hazardous journey (especially after he quarrelled and parted company with Major Stephen Long’s expedition) Beltrami (1779-1855) claimed to have discovered the source of the Mississippi in present day Minnesota, and his route is marked on the map. Map

Washington, 1878. Lithograph, 22 x 32 cms, colour printed, closed tear, blank verso; prepared by J. Bien for the Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who was Hayt between 1877-80. Map

London, 1799. Copper engraving, 41 x 35 cms, original hand colour in outline, slight toning at centrefold, blank verso. From the third edition of ‘A Complete Course of Geography, by Means of Instructive Games...’ It seems that this map would have been coupled with a blank template for the student to complete by hand. Map

London, 1840. Steel engraving, approx 32 x 39 cm, original hand colour, light toning, blank verso, numbered in an old hand in the margin. With inset views of Broadway and City Hall, and detail of railroads, ferries and principal public buildings, 40 of which are numbered in a key top right. Developed areas are shaded, and other parts of the city are laid out but remain undeveloped: the population stood at 327,000 in 1840, but by 1910 it had grown to 6,230,000. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was founded in 1826 with the high-minded aim of making 'useful' information available to self-taught members of the working and lower middle classes. Some of the material was decidedly abstruse, subscribers fell away and the Society was wound up in 1848; however, the series of 209 maps published over a 14 year period from 1829 onwards were highly praised for their superior quality, accuracy and aesthetic appeal and remain an outstanding achievement. Map

Paris, 1683. Copper engraving, 14.7 x 10.2 cms, black and white, French text on verso, from Mallet’s ‘Description de l’Univers’, first published in Paris in 1683 and reprinted with German text in Frankfurt the following year. Mallet was a military engineer, cartographer and mathematician in the service of the French King, Louis XIV. Burden 560. Map