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Description

Scarce map of the North Polar, including Hudson and Baffin Bay, Greenland, Iceland, Spitzberg, and a partial coastline for Novaya Zemla.

Hudson Bay is shown with two small bays in its southern end, one named James Bay, the other Bay du Nord, ou de Hudson. The map is inset with Les Isles de Fero, and Les Isles de Shetland.

The place names in the north reflect the names of early arctic explorers, exploration sponsors and historians, including:

  • Sir Thomas Smythe
  • Richard Hakluyt
  • Sir James Lancaster
  • Frances Jones (Lord Mayor of London and Alderman)
  • Sir Dudley Digges
Condition Description
Original hand-color in outline. Minor foxing.
Nicolas de Fer Biography

Nicholas de Fer (1646-1720) was the son of a map seller, Antoine de Fer, and grew to be one of the most well-known mapmakers in France in the seventeenth century. He was apprenticed at twelve years old to Louis Spirinx, an engraver. When his father died in 1673, Nicholas helped his mother run the business until 1687, when he became the sole proprietor.

His earliest known work is a map of the Canal of Languedoc in 1669, while some of his earliest engravings are in the revised edition of Methode pour Apprendre Facilement la Geographie (1685). In 1697, he published his first world atlas. Perhaps his most famous map is his wall map of America, published in 1698, with its celebrated beaver scene (engraved by Hendrick van Loon, designed by Nicolas Guerard). After his death in 1720, the business passed to his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jacques-Francois Benard.