"A New Description of Carolina"

by John Speed. London, 1676.
16 1/2" x 21" Copper plate engraving with very nice hand coloring. Condition excellent with the exception of very pale tide marks in upper left and right margins.
$7500.

This 17th century map by John Speed is one of the most desirable and attractive maps of the Carolinas. The first issue of this map is reported to have been published between 1611 and 1612. Speed died in 1729 yet his maps were reissued well into the 18th century. E. Phillips revised this particular map in 1676, with the revisions based solely on the famed Ogilby-Moxon map of 1672. Speed relied heavily on John Lederer's second expedition to the Carolinas for points of interest on this map such as the long, narrow savana in th Piedmont region; the placing of a great lake (Ashley Lake), and a desert; none of which existed. Lederer's second expedition produced many tall tales from Indians which, for nearly a century, explorers and cartographers believed and followed, although many turned out to be erroneous. The names of the first Lords Proprietors and locations of their plantations are identified on this map.

Cumming No.77