Carte Nouvelle de L'Amerique Angloise Contenant

Glorious full colour example of this famous early map of the English colonies. Stretching from Florida in the south to Hudson’s Bay in the north and west to the Mississippi River.

Mortier’s large map is on two sheets joined and was part of the “Suite de Neptune Francois”, a continuation of Mortier’s earlier work, the “Neptune Francois” of 1693. This earlier work focused mostly on French coastal waters although it was also augmented with the “Cartes Marines a l’Usage du Roy de Grande Bretagne”, which showed English coasts. The “Suite” was first published in 1700.

The map is mainly based on an earlier publication issued by Robert Morden and Christopher Browne entitled “A New Map of the English Empire in North America”. A point of interest is that even on this early iteration of maps of the English colonies, claims are being made for the western borders which encroach deeply into territories claimed by the French. This most likely stems from the charters of the original colonies granted in 1609 and 1620 which unilaterally stretched their western boundaries to the Pacific Ocean.

Mortier took the information and used it to illustrate the English Colonies in North America for his audience in The Netherlands. The small plan of Boston Harbour on the upper left has the distinction of being the first time an English colonial city was published on a non-English map.

The three volumes of Mortier’s “Neptune Francois” were large, beautiful and extremely expensive works. Indeed, it is calculated that the full colour examples were the most expensive cartographic works produced to date.

For further background on the work and other maps present, please read our blog "Magnificent Mortiers".

This example is from a 1708 edition of the “Suite de Neptune Francois” in outstanding original colour. [USA9960]