Subject: North Pacific Ocean
Period: 1700 (circa)
Publication: Geographia Politica…
Color: Hand Color
Size:
13.6 x 9.2 inches
34.5 x 23.4 cm
This bizarre and unusual map shows a mirror image of the North Pacific with the coastlines of America and Asia reversed, as if viewed from the center of the earth. The island of California is depicted with a heavily indented coastline. Japan has a curious shape with Honshu joined to a bulbous shaped Hokkaido by a narrow isthmus. The seas are filled with strange creatures and exquisitely engraved galleons, and the land is teeming with exotic animals. Native figures (each holding an exotic bird) support a distance measure that stretches between the continents. Inset with a large map of the Eastern hemisphere centered on Asia, also in mirror image.
References: McLaughlin #159.
Condition: A
A crisp impression, issued folding, and remargined at left with old paper to accommodate framing.