A magnificent wall map published by the firm of Bowles and Carver. Very few publications by the partnership survive to this day and items of this size and beauty are particularly desirable. The world map in Mercator’s projection displays the tracks of the explorers named in the title and those of many others too, each one dated. At the bottom is a ‘Latitudinary Scale, for ascertaining the distance betwixt two places on the same degree of latitude’. A key to the tracks identifies 10 voyages. To decorate the map we find a magnificent cartouche displaying images of navigators, one studying charts, the other using a sextant.

An example of the map dated 1800 is in the British Library (Maps C.22.c.6) and another undated in the National Library of Australia. Carington Bowles died in 1793 and the old family business was continued by his son Henry Carington Bowles (1763-1852) and Samuel Carver, both members of the Joiners’ Company. Carver was apprenticed to Carington Bowles in 1770 and freed 1777. The Bowles family were wealthy and there was little incentive to compete with the likes of John Cary so many of their publications are scarce. The British Library state that the map was listed in the firm’s 1795 catalogue. However it may be referring to another map similarly entitled but hemispheric in nature which they also possess dated to c.1790. If so it would be a substantially different map, lacking as it would have all of the great discoveries of Vancouver. Other more recent discoveries displayed include Bass Strait in Australia discovered by Matthew Flinders and George Bass in 1798. The official account and accompanying maps were not published until 1814. No references found.