Original 1763 antique copper-plate engraved map of Hudson Bay north of Fort Churchill.

• It is titled Carta rappresentante una parte d(e)lla Baya d'Hudson, e le Regioni a Maestro dell'America settentrionale and was engraved by Veremondo Rossi.



• The image area measures 21 x 27 cm [8¼" x 10½"], and the map has a decorative rococo title cartouche and compass rose, with longitude measured from Paris.



• The east coast of the bay had been seen by Henry Hudson in 1610, and some of the named features include later discoveries by Thomas Button, Luke Foxe, and Thomas James, explorers seeking the Northwest Passage.



• The map traces the route followed by Thomas Dobbs in 1746-47, also seeking the Northwest Passage, as recorded by explorer Henry Ellis (later governor of the colony of Georgia in the present-day United States).



• The map was published in Il Gazzettiere Americano, by Marco Coltellini, Livorno, Italy, 1763, based on an earlier map of French cartographer Jacques Nicolas Bellin, used for both the Petit Atlas Maritime and Histoire Generales de Voyages.



• Among the named places and features on the map are Mansel Island, Button Bay, Fort Churchill, Port Nelson, Chesterfield Inlet, Southhampton Island — labeled as Isola Barren, and the Prince of Wales Fort, on the west bank of the Churchill River.



• The Fort Churchill labeled on the map was one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s oldest fur trading posts. It was supplanted by the Prince of Wales Fort, also shown on the map but destroyed by a French naval expedition in 1782. The company reoccupied the area in 1783 and built a new post about three miles up river. This new Fort Churchill remained the company’s main post in the area until the twentieth century.



• Condition:  This map is in excellent condition, bright and clean, a bold, crisp impression, with two vertical folds, as issued, attractive hand color, and no marks, rips, or tears. It is blank on the back, with no printing on the reverse side. Please see the scans and feel free to ask any questions.



• This is an original, authentic antique engraving, not a reproduction or modern reprint, and it is fully guaranteed to be genuine.



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