Catalog Archive
Auction 104, Lot 42

"A New Map of the Terraqueous Globe according to the Ancient Discoveries and most general Divisions of it into Continents and Oceans", Wells, Edward

Subject: Ancient World

Period: 1700 (circa)

Publication: A New Sett of Maps both of Antient and Present Geography

Color: Hand Color

Size:
20.2 x 14.5 inches
51.3 x 36.8 cm
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Handsome double hemisphere map showing California as an Island. This is one of a pair of maps Wells included in his atlas - this one depicting the world as known to the ancients. The Old World is shown by hachure and color within the framework of the modern world. North America is noted as perhaps being "no other, than the Insular Atlantis of the Ancients." The map is surrounded by lovely engraved scenes including the royal coat of arms and a dedication to His Highness William, Duke of Gloucester who was attending Oxford where Wells was a teacher of mathematics and geography and who appears with his tutor under the tree on the right. On either side of the dedication are small landscapes, one of ships arriving in the New World and one of the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford. Engraved by Michael Burghers.

References: Shirley #608.

Condition: A

Couple of minor creases, else fine.

Estimate: $1,400 - $1,800

Sold for: $1,000

Closed on 9/10/2003

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