[Wall map]. [Americana]. DESNOS. (Louis Charles). Amérique s - Lot 312

[Wall map]. [Americana]. DESNOS. (Louis Charles). Amérique septentrionale et Méridionale divisée en ses principaux pais et subdivisée par audience... A Paris, chez L. C. Desnos, 1770 [corrigée et augmentée en] 1781. 1 copper-engraved map, colored outlines, approx. 104 x 114 cm (restorations, browning, gaps on the border). Rare and spectacular map of the American continent. It is centered on North and South America, and extends eastward to the western parts of Europe and Africa. The continent is bordered to the east by the Atlantic (then called the "North Sea"), and to the west by the Pacific Ocean, or "Great Southern Sea", where the coastal names of "California Sea", "Mexican Sea", "Peruvian Sea", "Chilean Sea" and "Magellanic Sea" can be found at the southernmost tip of the continent. In the north-west of North America, the question of maritime passage is not clearly defined: although the editor has shown a "so-called Western Sea", it is followed by a channel known as "communication des deux grandes mers" (communication of the two great seas), but the supposed route of this channel goes beyond the limits of the map and is therefore not shown in its entirety. The North American territory features the names of numerous Indian tribes; North America is largely covered in the north by the "Land of the Amazons". In a cartouche at bottom left, a different title appears: "N[ouvel]le carte d'Amérique dressée sur les mémoires les plus recens et assujetie aux dernières observations astronomiques", followed by the dedication, the mention of updating and the date 1781. The map is surrounded by a wide decorative border depicting scenes from the continent's history; the oceans are decorated with numerous ship figures.