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Description

A mysterious Geographical Table of N. America. Unrecorded in Any of the Relevant Reference Works.

An idiosyncratic, fascinating and mysterious map cum chart of the British possessions in North America, likely issued between the close of the French and Indian War and onset of the American Revolution.

At first glance, the image appears to consist of a map of eastern North America, oriented with East at the top, upon which have been superimposed two statistical tables. The map is badly distorted, but the British Colonies are present in something resembling their proper geographic relationship, though Delaware has been overlooked entirely (and filled in with early ink manuscript). The continent’s major geographic features are also recognizable—albeit barely—among them the eastern coastline, the Great Lakes, and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. “Indian Nations”, “Hunters & Warriors” and “Far Indians” are noted near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi and along the upper Mississippi. Forts Oswego, Pitt, and Rosalie are all highlighted with pictorial vignettes, suggesting that the map was drawn not long after the close of the French and Indian War, during which Oswego and Pitt played starring roles. 

The upper table provides basic geographic and demographic data about each province, excepting Delaware, from “Canada” (i.e., Quebec) at left to East and West Florida at right. The source of the data is not known, but the rounded numbers render it suspect, as does the constant ratio across all the provinces of four total inhabitants per “eff[ective]” man. Of particular interest is the final row, which identifies the “Indian Nations” inhabiting each province. The lower table provides distances between provincial capitals.   

What makes this piece extraordinary is not so much the information but the format. Closer examination reveals that the tables are not simply superimposed on the map; rather, the designer has attempted to integrate them into a seamless whole. This is best seen along the Eastern Seaboard, where the provincial names also serve as the column headings of the upper table. Thus the bizarre distortion of the geography is, to a certain extent, a case of form following function, as it enables the provincial names to play dual roles as both locations on a map and column headings.

The presence of East and West Florida, and the absence of any reference to the American Revolution or the United States, suggest that the map should be dated to between 1763 and ca. 1775. However almost everything else about it remains a puzzle: For starters, we have been unable to identify the “C. Brown” credited at lower right as the draftsman; indeed, it’s not clear whether Brown was operating in London, elsewhere in Great Britain, or even in the Colonies. Further, in the lower-right margin appears the binder’s note “Facing Appendix”, leaving open the questions, “The Appendix of what?” and, since the margins have been trimmed away, “Was this example of the map ever in fact bound?” In this regard it is worth noting that we have found no references, anywhere, to a published book or pamphlet containing the map; indeed, the only other references we have found to it are two appearances at auction more than a century apart, in 1913 and 2015, in both cases offered separately with no mention of an accompanying text.

The statistical and distance tables are also a puzzle, as once again the sources are not known. Though there are for example distance tables on well-known 18th-century maps, most famously Lewis Evans’ Map of the Middle British Colonies, in America, none remotely resemble the one here. Finally, the distance table has in seven places tiny circles bisected by diagonal lines, the meaning of which is entirely unclear.

In all, a map of British North America raising far more questions than we have answered, but a fascinating experiment in graphic design, likely extremely rare, and retaining the tantalizing possibility that it was produced here in America.

Condition Description
Trimmed inside platemark on all sides. Retaining maker's engraved signature and "Facing Appendix" note in the lower-right corner. Early ink manuscript adding Delaware ("Del.") and a supplementary title "America in Miniature: Or". Corners pasted down to a sheet of 19th-century paper, probably a cut-down album leaf. Very short, clean tear from the bottom edge just into the bottom table, through the "d" in "...and unknown...".
Reference
Not in McCorkle, New England in Early Printed Maps; Phillips, Maps of America; Rumsey; or Sellers & Van Ee, Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies. Given the likelihood the map is a plate from a book, it should not surprise that title searches in ESTC, Library Hub Discover (formerly COPAC) and OCLC all come up empty. Not mentioned in Antique Map Price Record, but Rare Book Hub lists an example, described as a “curious copper engraving” and dated “ca 1800”, offered at Anderson Galleries in February 1913 and another at Duke’s Auction in Dorchester, UK on Oct. 15, 2015 (lot 1360).