Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
This item has been sold, but you can enter your email address to be notified if another example becomes available.
Description

Finely executed double hemisphere map of the World, published by Thomas Kitchin in London.

The map shows a fascinating configuration of Australia, which specifically refers to the curious Eastern Coastline as "Conjectural Coasts."

Several early hints at the Antarctic Coastline are shown, although both apocryphal. New Zealand is highly incomplete, shown in its pre-Cook single coastline configuration.

Easter Island is Davis's Land. First discovered by Jacob Roggeveen in 1722, he was actually searching for "Davis Land." An English buccaneer named John Davis had reported sighting this island in 1687 in latitude 27°20'S. Davis reported that the island was 500 miles west of the coast of Chile, low, flat and sandy, but with 'a long tract of pretty high land' to the northwest. This description in no way applies to Easter Island and is now believed to have been Mangareva Island, further west.

The lands seen by Quiros in 1606 are also located, although Hawaii has not yet been discovered by Captain James Cook. The Northwest Coast of America reflects the Russian discoveries under the command of Captain Vitus Behring in 1741, although the region further east is labeled "Parts Unknown." Carver's River of the West is shown, as is Quivira and New Albion, both late appearances for these place names.

Thomas Kitchin Biography

Thomas Kitchin was a British cartographer and engraver. Born in Southwark, England, Kitchin was the eldest of several children. He was apprenticed to the map engraver Emanuel Bowen from 1732 to 1739, and he married Bowen’s daughter, Sarah, in December 1739. By 1741 Kitchin was working independently and in 1746 he began taking on apprentices at his firm. His son Thomas Bowen Kitchin was apprenticed to him starting in 1754. By 1755 Kitchin was established in Holborn Hill, where his firm produced all kinds of engraved materials, including portraits and caricatures. He married his second wife, Jane, in 1762. Beginning in 1773 Kitchin was referred to as Hydrographer to the King, a position his son also later held. He retired to St. Albans and continued making maps until the end of his life.

A prolific engraver known for his technical facility, clean lettering, and impressive etched decorations, Kitchin produced several important works throughout his career. He produced John Elphinstone’s map of Scotland in 1746, and the first pocket atlas of Scotland, Geographia Scotiae, in 1748/1749. He co-published The Small English Atlas in 1749 with another of Bowen’s apprentices, Thomas Jefferys. He produced The Large English Atlas serially with Emanuel Bowen from 1749 to 1760. The latter was the most important county atlas since the Elizabethan era, and the first real attempt to cover the whole country at a large scale. In 1755 Kitchin engraved the important John Mitchell map of North America, which was used at the peace treaties of Paris and Versailles. In 1770 he produced the twelve-sheet road map England and Wales and in 1769–70 he produced Bernhard Ratzer’s plans of New York. In 1783, he published The Traveller’s Guide through England and Wales.