Antique Hand-Colored Map of Jamaica, circa 1680

Name: Antique Hand-Colored Map of Jamaica, circa 1680
Brand: Visscher
SKU: PCT-58946
Price: 2185 USD
Availability: InStock

$2,185

€1,950 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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Shipping to the United States: $51 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.

Date: 1680
Maker: Visscher
Kind: Maps
Size: 51.4 × 61.7 cm (20.2 × 24.3 in)
Condition: Good. Wear consistent with age and use. Good antique condition. Original vertical center fold as issued. General age-related toning with some light discoloration and minor soiling, particularly toward the margins. Minor handling and wear along the sheet edges consistent with age.
Period: Colonial America
Places: Jamaica
Reference: PCT-58946

What the condition grades mean

Excellent: Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good: Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good: Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair: Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.

Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.

Guaranteed original. This is an original of the period stated, not a later reproduction or print-on-demand copy. If it is ever shown to be otherwise, we refund you in full.

Shipping to the United States. Sent from our gallery in Langweer, the Netherlands, flat between boards or rolled in a tube, and fully insured. Delivery and import charges.

About this piece

Jamaica in a hand-colored copper engraving by Nicolaes Visscher, published in Amsterdam around 1680. The long Latin title in the cartouche reads "Jamaica, Americae Septentrionalis ampla insula, a Christophoro Columbo detecta, in suas gubernationes peraccurate distincta", and the engraver's name, "L. v. Anse sculp.", appears at the lower edge.

The island lies east to west across the sheet, with "Mar del Nord" lettered above and below it. Its internal divisions are shown as colored precincts in pink, green, yellow and orange, among them Clarendon, St. Thomas and St. Elizabeth. Rivers, mountains, forest, towns, churches and forts are marked inland, and the coast is thick with small lettered bays and points. Offshore are small islands including Falcon, Morant and Ranas at the edges, and the separate Binoras group at the lower left. A compass rose sits in the sea north of the island, and the elaborate title cartouche at the lower right has a trumpeting putto, other putti, a female figure beside the water and a mileage scale beneath it.

The map shows Jamaica as it was a quarter century after the English took it from Spain in 1655.

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