Original Engraving of the West Indies, Gulf of Mexico, Antilles, Caribbean, 1780
€ 390
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1780
Sheet size
25 × 38.5 cm (9.8 × 15.2 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-13619-7
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.
Condition
Good; suitable for framing. Borders colored by hand. Some creases but not strong or disturbing. Most antiquarian maps and prints are subject to some normal aging due to use and time which is not obtrusive unless otherwise stated.
About this sheet
The Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in a hand-colored copper engraving by Rigobert Bonne, dated 1780. The title is "Les Isles Antilles et le Golfe du Mexique", and the sheet is numbered 25. It was drawn for Guillaume Raynal's Atlas de Toutes les Parties Connues du Globe Terrestre, the atlas that accompanied his Histoire Philosophique et Politique des Etablissemens et du Commerce des Europeens dans les Deux Indes.
The map runs from Florida and Louisiana in the north to the Spanish Main and Venezuela in the south, and from Mexico and Central America on the west to Barbados at the eastern edge of the Lesser Antilles. Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico are outlined in yellow, green and pink, and the islands of the Lesser Antilles are shown in a chain curving toward South America. Hatched lines across the open sea carry arrows for winds and currents, and shoals and dangers are noted. An inset in the upper right shows Bermuda ("Les Bermudes"), with a scale and the harbor marked.
Bonne was a prominent French mapmaker of the later eighteenth century, and this sheet shows the West Indian colonies of the rival European powers as they stood in 1780.
