Subject: North Pacific Ocean
Period: 1703 (circa)
Publication: Geographia Politica…
Color: Black & White
Size:
13.6 x 9.1 inches
34.5 x 23.1 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: B+
A dark impression on a bright sheet with light toning along the centerfold.