Late-18th century map of South America based on a French map by D'Anville created approximately forty years earlier.

The general outline of the continent is based on D’Anville’s map of the mid-18th century, but this example displays the name of Sieur de la Rochette on the cartouche. Despite the French name, de la Rochette was a mapmaker and engraver who worked in London and was closely associated with one of the leading map publishers and cartographers of the time, William Faden.

The publishers of this map, Henry Carington Bowles and Thomas Carver, working in partnership as Bowles & Carver from 1793, inherited the copperplates of the Bowles firm and continued printing from them long after the maps were considered modern or accurate. Geographically, this map is identical to the Carington Bowles map of c.1770, but it does include revisions to the publisher's imprint and the title cartouche. This map also features much brighter full-body colour, a sign of changing tastes.

Particular points of interest on this map is the marking of the old Line of Tordesillas, separating Spanish and Portuguese territory on the continent as well as the location of the mythical Pepys Island. The shape of the Galapagos Islands remains uncertain and there are several other questionable islands or pieces of land sighted by earlier explorers in the Pacific, the South Atlantic, and along the coast of Antarctica (still undiscovered at this time).

Original hand colour. [SAM3577]