‘Following the discovery of a previously unrecorded state in 1969 by Coolie Verner, Jeannette Black updated the very complicated history of this map in her Commentary on the Blathwayt Atlas. Since then a further unrecorded state appeared in 1989. When I. N. Phelps Stokes wrote about this map in 1915 he believed it was first published in 1664. This assumption was based upon the fact that the colony of New Jersey was founded on 24 June in that year. On that date James, Duke of York, who had been granted the land by his brother Charles II, himself bestowed the land between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. ‘Which said Tract of Land is hereafter to be called by the Name of New-Caeserea or New-Jersey’. This was chosen in recognition of Carteret’s loyalty to the King during the Civil War as Lieutenant Governor of the Island of Jersey. In the period leading up to the Dutch reoccupation in August 1673 there was little development in the colony. In the treaty of peace between England and the Netherlands signed in February 1674 the region was returned. The following month Berkeley consigned his share to two Quakers, John Fenwick and Edward Byllynge. The publication of this map was reassigned to this period as the clear source utilised for the depiction of the Delaware River and southern New Jersey was Augustine Herrman’s map published no later than March 1674. In the example of the ‘Atlas Maritimus’ at the Pepys Library described in Seller’s first entry, c.1673, it is dated by hand 1675. This is the date the author has chosen to agree on.

The middle of New Jersey and the Upper Delaware River are derived from the earlier ‘NOVI BELGII’ published by Nicolaas Visscher c.1655. The main feature drawn from this earlier map is the famous view of New York. This is only the second English view of the town, the first being a small engraving set within the text of John Ogilby’s America published in 1671. Carto-bibliographers have claimed that the Seller map is the first view to be called New York. It can most probably be assumed that the map was published after March 1674, the date of issue of the Herrman map. The second state of Hugo Allard’s ‘NOVI BELGII’, first published in c.1662, glorified the restitution of New Amsterdam to Dutch control by bearing the Restitutio view naming Nieuw jorck. This was clearly published before news of the return of the colony to England in February 1674. Thus the probability is that the Allard map pre-dates the Seller in this regard. The region of New York and its harbour is derived from an unknown source. No Newark Bay is depicted and an unnamed Passaic River runs north-west. Some soundings are present in New York Harbor; the Hudson River itself especially near Manhattan is not particularly accurate. No printed or manuscript work is known to bear any resemblance.

The first state of the map appears in some examples of Seller’s ‘Atlas Maritimus’ published in 1675 but is not generally expected to be present. The map was extensively revised shortly thereafter. A large dedication to Sir George Carteret adorned with his coat of arms is placed in the centre of the map. The arms of James, Duke of York, are added in New York to identify his possession of the colony. The most interesting alteration, however, is a major revision of the region of New York. The only area untouched is the south-easterly portion of Long Island. New York is now depicted with a fort indicating its concern with defences following the Dutch occupation. Staten Island is much more accurate and now bears nomenclature. To its north is a Newark Bay correctly illustrated running north–south. The Passaic River still runs north-west but then bears eastwards and joins the Hudson River. Again the source for these changes is unknown. Stokes had assigned a date of 1665 to this but as Black points out Staten Island bears ‘Lovelace his pla[ntation]’, a reference to Francis Lovelace, Governor of New York, who did not arrive in the province until 1668. A fine example of a very rare and important map. Black (1975) pp. 88-98; Burden 463 state 1; Burden (1996) no. 315; Campbell (1965) pp. 292–4; Christie’s, London, 26 June, 1996, lot 298; Christie’s New York 21 June, 2005, lot 10; Deák (1988) no. 47; Shirley (2004) M.Sell-3b no. 33; Stokes (1915–28) volume 1, pp. 213–5.