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Fascinating map the region from the Coastlines of California, Oregon and Washington, across the Northern Pacific, extending to Kamtchatka.
The map is 1 sheet of a larger 6 sheet map, which was typically bound as 3 sheets in Jefferys America Atlas, commencing in about 1775. The map is highly coveted by California, Oregon and Washington Collectors for the coastal details and the numerous sailing ships and Trans-Pacific voyage routes depicted, including Behring, Tchrikow, De L'Isle de la Croyere, Frondate, Cavendish, Gaetan, Wallis, Spilbergen, Anson, Mendanna and others. Includes a number of factual and annectdotal annotations, including notes about Juan De Fuca, Admiral De Font and the maps of JN De L'Isle. Drake's discovery and claims are noted, as is the bay discovered by Martin d'Aguilar. The River of the West is shown as a water course connecting the to the Mississippi River, just south of Lake Winnepeg. The discovery of the land by the Chinese Geographer Fou-Sang is also noted. The present example is backed on linen and has some soiling in the Pacific, but is still a very presentable example.
Separate sheets from this map rarely appear on the market.
Thomas Jefferys (ca. 1719-1771) was a prolific map publisher, engraver, and cartographer based in London. His father was a cutler, but Jefferys was apprenticed to Emanuel Bowen, a prominent mapmaker and engraver. He was made free of the Merchant Taylors’ Company in 1744, although two earlier maps bearing his name have been identified.
Jefferys had several collaborators and partners throughout his career. His first atlas, The Small English Atlas, was published with Thomas Kitchin in 1748-9. Later, he worked with Robert Sayer on A General Topography of North America (1768); Sayer also published posthumous collections with Jefferys' contributions including The American Atlas, The North-American Pilot, and The West-India Atlas.
Jefferys was the Geographer to Frederick Prince of Wales and, from 1760, to King George III. Thanks especially to opportunities offered by the Seven Years' War, he is best known today for his maps of North America, and for his central place in the map trade—he not only sold maps commercially, but also imported the latest materials and had ties to several government bodies for whom he produced materials.
Upon his death in 1771, his workshop passed to his partner, William Faden, and his son, Thomas Jr. However, Jefferys had gone bankrupt in 1766 and some of his plates were bought by Robert Sayer (see above). Sayer, who had partnered in the past with Philip Overton (d. 1751), specialized in (re)publishing maps. In 1770, he partnered with John Bennett and many Jefferys maps were republished by the duo.
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