Greenland & North America – Antique Sea Chart by Frederick de Wit, 1745

1745 · Sea Charts

Greenland & North America – Antique Sea Chart by Frederick de Wit, 1745

Name: Greenland & North America – Antique Sea Chart by Frederick de Wit, 1745
Brand: Frederick de Wit
SKU: PCT-59809
Price: 3920 USD
Availability: InStock

$3,920

€3,500 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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

Date: 1745
Maker: Frederick de Wit
Kind: Sea Charts
Technique: Engraved
Size: 54.5 × 66 cm (21.5 × 26 in)
Condition: Good. Beautiful original/contemporary hand coloring. Original folding line. Minor wear and toning. Small hole outside image. Please study images carefully.
Period: Colonial America
Places: Canada
Reference: PCT-59809

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

A sea chart of the northern waters of North America, titled "Septemtrionaliora Americae a Groenlandia," engraved by Frederick de Wit for his atlas of 1675 and revised for the 1745 edition of Otten's Sea Atlas (Atlas van de Zeevaart). The chart is an engraving with hand coloring, drawn with compass roses and crossing rhumb lines over the sea.

The chart covers Labrador and part of Newfoundland, the west coast of Greenland, Davis Strait, and, by a non-existent passage, Baffin Bay and, through Hudson Strait, Hudson Bay. Hudson Bay is shown as a large green gulf with the name of James, and the coasts of "New North Wales," "Button's Bay" and "Nova Britannia" are lettered along the western shore. An allegorical cartouche with the title and figures stands at the center left, and a small ship sails in Baffin Bay. A separate inset at the upper left gives a more detailed chart of the fishing grounds at Disko Bay on the Greenland coast, with soundings and place names.

The chart reflects the Dutch interest in the northern whaling and fishing grounds and in the search for a Northwest Passage.

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