| Summary: | 18th century Copper engraving handcolored with watercolor. Full color. Relief shown pictorially. Printed in cartouche lower right corner: "A Map of the Whole Continent of America. Particularly Shewing the British Empire in the Northern part of America, with the Divisions of the New Governments since the accession of Canada and Florida." Printed beneath cartouche in lower right corner: "London, Printed for John Bowles at the Black Horse in Cornhil, & Carington Bowles next the chapter House in St. Pauls Church Yard." Printed in upper left corner: "Northwest of California in Latitude 38.30' is the Harbour of Sr. Francis Drake." Printed along left edge in Pacific Ocean: "The Province of East Florida Is Bounded to the Westward by the Gulph of Mexico & the Apalachicola River…" Printed along left edge in Pacific Ocean: "The Province of West Florida Is bounded to the Southward by the Gulph of Mexico including all Islands within Six Leagues of the Coast…" Printed in the north Atlantic Ocean: "The Province of Quebec Is bounded on the Labrador Coast…" Printed along the west coast of South America are descriptions of the Sacrament colony, "Buenos Ayres," and York Isle. Printed in the lower left corner is a key that summarizes all the places within North and South America along with the names of countries who have claimed those areas and a map scale comparing British Leagues, Spanish Leagues and English Statute Miles. Printed next to title cartouche: "Malouin Isles. This land was first discover'd…" Printed next to Grenada: "The Government of Grenada Comprehends the Island of that name, together with the Granadines and the Islands of Dominico St. Vincent and Tobago." Printed beneath the description of Grenada is a key showing abbreviations for owning country: "E. English. F. French. S. Spanish. D. Dutch. Da. Danes." Printed in the northernmost area of North America: "All the Bays & Inlets on the West side of Hudson's Bay have been visited without appearance of Success in the several attempts made for the Discovery of a North West passage." Printed along line in middle of Brazil: "Line of Demarcation between the Spaniards & the Portuguese fixed By the Pope Alexander VI in the year 1500." Brief descriptions of exploration along the west coast of North America given beside west coast of California and North America. Labels area north of California as "New Albion." The northwestern region of North America is left blank and the area is labeled generally as "The West Sea." "New Britain" is the title of most of northern Canada. Both North and South Carolina are shown on the map as is "West Florida" and "East Florida." "Nation of the Snake" is seen in the northern part of Louisiana and the space between the Great Lakes and Hudson's Bay is labeled as "Great Space Unknown." Surrounding the title cartouche is a native woman reclining with cherubim playing with sea creatures. Prime Meridian: Isle of Ferro. Scale c.a. 1:30,000,000. John Bowles (1701-1779) and his son, Carrington (1724-1793), were part of the Bowles family of publishers and mapsellers. John frequently worked with his brother Thomas (fl. C. 1714- c. 1763) and then later partnered with Carrington (1754-64) under the business name "John Bowles & Son." John then continued to work alone until his death when he was succeeded by Robert Wilkinson (fl. 1779-1829). In 1794, Wilkinson then transferred the interest of the business to "Bowles & Carver." During his lifetime, John produced a number of works. Working with Thomas, John created "A Set of Fifty New and Correct Maps of England and Wales" (Herman Moll's maps), "Kingdom of Ireland" (1732) and a re-issue of Saxton's "Brittania" (1760). John's work also included: "Large Atlas of World" (1724), "County Maps" (1724), "English Gentleman's Guide" (1738), "Royal English Atlas" (1762) and Catalogues in 1725 and 1753 (Moreland and Bannister, 165-6; Tooley, 75; Skelton, 73). Source(s): Moreland, Carl and David Bannister. "Antique Maps: A Collector's Handbook." New York: Longman Group, Ltd., 1983. Skelton, R.A. "Decorative Printed Maps of the 15th to 18th Centuries; a Revised Edition of Old Decorative Maps and Charts, by A. L. Humphreys." London: Staples Press, 1952. Tooley, Ronald Vere. "Tooley's Dictionary of Mapmakers." Hertfordshire: Map Collector Publications Limited, 1979.
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