Historic Map : Cruttwell Map of The World in Hemispheres, 1799, Vintage Wall Art

Clement Cruttwell's 1799 map of the world in two hemispheres. This is an elegant world map designed to illustrate the activities of important explorers of the 17th and18th centuries. The tracks of Cook, Anson, Bourgainville, Wallis, Furneaux, and others are noted. Cook's work in the late 18th century, being of extreme importance, is emphasized. Cartographically this map follows established convention but does feature the most recent discoveries of Cook and Vitus Bering in the Arctic. Inland detail is somewhat minimal and focuses on important cities and countries. There are a few anomalies worthy of note. Tasmania is attached to the Australian mainland. The southern shores of New Guinea are unknown and left blank. Japan is incorrectly aligned along the horizontal. The Sea between Japan and Korea, the name of which is currently being disputed between Korea and Japan, is here identified as the Sea of Corea. In North America the apocryphal River of the West runs from the west coast inland. Also in North America, though the discoveries of Hearne are noted, the work of MacKenzie, further west, is missing (possibly Cruttwell was an investor in the Hudson Bay Company and didn't want to recognize the work of MacKenzie and the rival North West Company?). Antarctica, which has not yet been discovered, is absent. The whole exhibits delicate outline color and fine copper plate engraving in the minimalist English style prevalent in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Drawn by G. G. and J. Robinson of Paternoster Row, London, for Clement Cruttwell's 1799 Atlas to Cruttwell's Gazetteer.