America, Louisiana – Henri Chatelain, 1719

“Carte de la nouvelle France, on se voit le cours des Grandes Rivieres de S. Laurens et de Mississippi“. Copper engraving by Henri Chatelain. Published in Amsterdam 1719. From Chatelain’s “Atlas Historique et Méthodique“. With original hand colouring. Size: 42,1 x 48,4 cm.

Beautiful map of eastern North America copied from De Fer, and designed to show the courses of the St. Laurence and the Mississippi rivers.

Containing lots of inland detail with notes and vignettes of the indigenous peoples and fauna of North America. In an inset at top left the coast of Louisiana, in another inset at bottom right a panoramic view and plan of Quebec. Louisiana and the Mississippi valley are based on Delisle’s manuscript map of 1701. The geography of New England and Eastern Canada originates with Franquelin. A large-scale map of the Mississippi delta and Mobile Bay, based on the voyage of Le Moyne is inset at top left.

The map is filled with wildlife, scenes of Indians hunting, Indian villages and notations, and the oceans are embellished with numerous ships, canoes and sea monsters. The map was issued to promote the newly established Compagnie Francoise Occident, which was formed to fund the debt of Louix XIV and offered inducements to encourage settlement in Louisiana.

Price: SOLD