Carte Générale de L'Amérique

London: Nourse, Vaillant, Millar, Rocque & Sayer, 1754. Copper-engraved map, with full original colour, in very good condition. A highly decorative map of the Americas, evincing Palairet's uniquely elegant aesthetic style

This artistically virtuous map embraces the entirety of North and South America, and also takes in the western extremities of Europe and Africa. South America is very well defined, and is divided into the various Spanish domains and Portuguese Brazil. North America is depicted on the eve of the Seven Years War. The English colonies running from Georgia up to Nova Scotia hug the Atlantic seaboard, while the massive French empire consisting of Canada and Louisiana extends through the heart of the continent. Quebec City, the capital of New France, is noted on the map. In the west, California is correctly shown to be a peninsula, while the Pacific Northwest is shown to be an enigma. Mexico and the numerous islands of the Caribbean are also portrayed. The map is adorned with a elegant, rococo style cartouche. Jean Palairet was born in Montauban, France, but emigrated to England where he became a French tutor to the children of George II. He later wrote several informative books on arithmetic, language, arts and sciences, and geography. The present map is from the second edition of Palairet's greatest work, the Atlas méthodique, a magnificent cartographical demonstration, in which landmasses are shown in various stages of political definition.

Phillips, Atlases in the Library of Congress, 3503, map 12.