A fine original copy of Lotter's 1776 map of the British Colonies, which identifies each of the 13 Colonies by name in the title and in the map, at the outbreak of the American Revolution. The title is placed within an attractive decorative border surmounted by the British Royal arms. The map is very Franco-centric, limiting the claims of the British to the regions east of the Appalachian Mountains. The delineation of the thirteen "Provinces unies" is generally well done (although Maryland and Georgia are both strangely shaped): a number of locations are named in the Ohio Valley, including Logs Town, Twictwees, Ft. Du Quesne, Allegheny, Vinango, Buffaloons, Sandoski and Mingos. Some interesting details are also shown in the region of the Great Lakes. The French title and nomenclature indicates that Lotter, a leading German mapmaker, intended this for the French market, as does the fact that he limits the claims of the British to the regions east of the Appalachian Mountains.
Matthäus Albrecht Lotter (1741 - 1810) was a German engraver and map publisher; he and his brothers inherited the firm from their father, Tobias Conrad Lotter (1717 - 1777) who in turn had inherited the firm of Matthäus Seutter. T. C. Lotter and his sons Matthäus Albrecht, Georg Friedrich, (1744-1801) and Gustav Conrad (1746 - 1776) succeeded in building on the economic success and professional reputation of Seutter's work. Eventually Lotter became one of the most prominent mid-18th century map publishers working in the German school. After the elder Lotter's death in 1777, the business was taken over by Matthäus Albrecht and Georg Friedrich two eldest sons. Despite their best efforts, they lacked their father's business acumen, and the firm began a slow decline. It was nonetheless passed on to a subsequent generation of Lotters, Gabriel (1776 - 1857) and Georg Friedrich (1787 - 1864), who pushed it into further decline until it faded out in the early-19th century.
