A fascinating UNRECORDED item. At first glance like the George Bickham map however this is in fact a larger item. More importantly it appears to be unrecorded. No record can be found in the reference sources and no examples can be located in institutions. It would appear that this may indeed be the inspiration for Bickham’s similarly entitled map of 1743. This map by Emanuel Bowen contains considerably more information, both on the map and in the form of legends. These refer to the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, and a treaty with Sweden in 1720. No mention is made of the Seven Years War begun in 1756. The newly formed colony of Georgia in 1733 is present. The geography and terminology would place this map to the late 1730s approximately. This would also place the map early in Bowen’s career which began circa 1720 but did not become notably in his own name until the 1740s.

Drawn on a circular projection it shows the North Atlantic Ocean bordered by the coasts of Great Britain, France, Spain and North Africa called “Negroland”, and on the western side by the coast of Canada and North America down to the West Indies and South America. The map locates the ‘Cape Vird Isles’ and shows “The First Meridian” drawn through the Canary Islands. The numerous trading ports of the Gold Coast of Africa are clearly identified. Florida is depicted in an unusual manner but not unknown, Nicholas Bellin used the same geography. North and South Carolina are distinctly separated which occurred in 1730. The Bickham is quite clearly related being on the same unusual projection however there are differences most notably the depiction of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. The legends in the four corners of this map refer to the Treaty of Utrecht upper left and an ‘Explanation’ upper right. Lower right is a list of the factories in Asia whilst lower left refers to the significance of St. Helena in victualling the vessels travelling to and from those waters. All in all a fascinating item. Refer to the Bickham map Hodson ‘English County Atlases’ no. 217 p. 84.