Sold Antiques

M-11670 : (Image : 19x25’’) “CARTE DE LA VIRGINIE ET DU MARYLAND” Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson.  Paris:  Robert de Vaugondy, c. 1755.  A superb example of State 3 (limits of Fairfax Proprietary removed, & Haussard's name replaced by Groux beneath the cartouche).  Fine engraved map with original outline color and later cartouche color.

This map is based on the 1751 4-sheet Fry/Jefferson map published in London. The impact of the large, highly influential map was greatly increased by this reduced French edition, which Thomas Jefferson hung at Monticello because the English edition of his father’s map was too large. The Fry/Jefferson map is the basic cartographic document of Virginia from the 18^th century. It concludes the evolution of Virginia cartography begun in 1612 by Captain John Smith. It was the “first printed map to show parallel ridges & valleys in Appalachian Mountain range in correct direction” (Schwartz/Ehrenberg Mapping of America, p. 159).  The Fry/ Jefferson map was the first to delineate the interior regions of Virginia beyond Tidewater. It was “the basic cartographic document for Virginia in the 18^th century” (Goss, Mapping of North America, p. 126).  An important feature of this map is that it shows all of the major plantations along Virginia’s rivers by family name.