Dec 04, 2014 - Sale 2369

Sale 2369 - Lot 70

Price Realized: $ 4,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(MANUSCRIPT SCHOOL MAP.) A spectacular manuscript map of New York State, executed in ink and watercolor on wove paper, with fragmentary watermark in lower right: "Edmeades [& Pine] / 180[?]". 560x690 mm; accompanied by a walnut and gilt frame (second half 19th century) with original pine board back; toned, edges friable. [Probably New York, circa 1805-1810]
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Additional Details

The present map is a fascinating and highly unusual cartographic artifact. It is redolent of the so-called 'school girl manuscript maps' made in classrooms throughout the Northeast in the second quarter of the 19th century. However, this map substantially surpasses known examples of that genre in its quality of execution and detail. Furthermore, the earliest school girl manuscript maps appeared in the years immediately before 1820. This map exactingly follows from Simeon DeWitt's important 1804 map of New York, and was drawn on a single sheet of wove paper, with a watermark dating it to roughly the first nine years of the 19th century. Therefore, if the map belongs to the classroom tradition, it is among the very earliest American examples.

The cartouche deviates completely from that in the DeWitt map; here it features a rose bush growing over a stone emblazoned with the title: 'State of New York.' The cartouche is drawn in a naïve style reminiscent of botanical theorems, which is at odds with the precision of the rest of the map. As it is not integral to the composition, one might speculate that it was added by another hand.

Almost all of the detail and information in the printed map of 1804 is included on this manuscript map. The printed DeWitt map measures approximately 570x700 mm.