Historic Map : Bowen Map of The World in Hemispheres, 1744, Vintage Wall Art

An extremely attractive 1744 decorative double hemisphere world map by the English cartographer Emmanuel Bowen. This beautiful map covers the entire world as it was understood in the middle part of the 18th century, before the explorations of Cook, Wilkes, and others. Surrounded by decorative engravings of women representing each of the continents: America in the upper left, Europe in the upper right, Asia in the lower left, and Africa in the lower right. The decorative baroque title cartouche appears at top center. Color coding according to continent. Limited inland detail, but major cities, geographical landmarks, and regions are noted. In the tropics ocean currents are identified - a very unusual addition. This map is most interesting for its treatment of the western coast of America, the Pacific, and most importantly, Australia. Bowen issued this map during a dark period in Australian exploration, the seventy-some years between the navigations of William Dampier in 1699 and Tobias Furneaux in 1773. Consequently most of the cartographic information on this map dates to 17th century Dutch expeditions to Australia's western coast, such as those of Abel Tasman and William Janszoon. Consequently we see a very ephemeral speculative mapping of the continent with Van Diemens's Land (Tasmania) and New Guinea attached to the mainland. New Zealand appears in a very embryonic form as a single landmass with no western shore. What we know from Drake is that it is a safe harbor that lies to the north of the furthest Spanish Claim, Point Loma, along the coast that Drake named New Albion. Some have associated Drake's Harbor with San Francisco Bay, Bodega Bay, or San Pablo Bay, but since the relevant records were lost in the 1698 burning of London's Whitehall Palace, we may never know. Also of interest is Bowen's mapping of "De Gama's Land" just to the south of Siberia.