"L'Amerique Dressee pour l'Etude de la Geographie...", Brion de la Tour/Desnos

This decorative map features a landscape-style title cartouche and several sailing ships. While the interior of the map contains little cartographic information, the northwest part of North America is quite interesting. A large bay labeled, Entrée de Martin d’Aguilar en 1603 indents the coastline, while above that, a river and lake system provide a complex Northwest Passage. There is a notation that the existence of a Sea of the West is questionable just above this fictitious passage. The map is surrounded by an elaborate border that was printed from a separate plate and then assembled with French text panels for the atlas. Brion was the former Geographer to the King of France, and Desnos was Geographer to the King of Denmark. First published in 1764, this is a later edition as evidenced by the ships being barely visible due to the plate being worn down.

References: McGuirk #130.

Condition: B+

Full contemporary color on a watermarked sheet with light soiling and some toning along the edges of the sheet.