Original antique map engraved by John Cary and published in his New Universal Atlas in 1808. With original hand colouring.
The maps detail the global tracks and historic discoveries of late 18th-century maritime explorers. These include Captain James Cook, George Vancouver, Jean-François de Galaup (Comte de Lapérouse), and Charles Clerke.
The Western Hemisphere was drawn originally in 1799, and details the Americas and much of Polynesia. It reflects a fledgling United States extending west only to the Mississippi River, depicts a split Spanish Florida, and leaves the northernmost stretches of Canada unmapped.
The Eastern Hemisphere dates originally from 1801, and spans Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. It leaves massive expanses of central Africa marked as Terra Incognita (unknown land) and shows incomplete, open coastlines for northern Australia and New Guinea.
The maps feature hand-coloured country boundaries, pictorial relief to represent mountains, and distinctively crisp typography that became a hallmark of the English school of cartography.
John Cary (1755–1835), was a prominent British cartographer and engraver. He published a wide range of highly accurate copper-engraved maps that became industry standards for their clean, un-ornamented style. These 1804 editions were largely prepared for his comprehensive New Universal Atlas, which was eventually issued in full in 1808.
Cary served his apprenticeship as an engraver in London, before setting up his own business in the Strand in 1783. He soon gained a reputation for his maps and globes. He published 'The New and Correct English Atlas' in 1787, which soon became a standard reference work in England.
In 1794 Cary was commissioned by the Postmaster General to survey England's roads. This resulted in Cary's 'New Itinerary', published in 1798, containing maps of all the major roads in England and Wales. He also produced Ordnance Survey maps prior to 1805.
Cary's New Universal Atlas, is a landmark of early 19th-century map making. It represented a shift from the decorative, artistic maps of the 18th century toward a more modern, scientific approach prioritising clarity, accuracy, and meticulous detail.
The 1808 edition featured 56 hand-coloured, engraved maps covering all major states and kingdoms worldwide, including highly detailed maps of England and Wales.
Cary replaced the "quaintness and charm" of older maps with a scientific rationality, using the latest surveying techniques to establish a standard that later influenced the Ordnance Survey.
The atlas was so popular it was reissued at least seven times over the next 30 years.
