This fine beautifully hand coloured original antique Twin Hemisphere World map by Henri Abraham Chatelain in 1708 was published in his famous Atlas Historique.
This is a magnificent map with bright hand colouring, clean strong sturdy paper and a heavy clear impression.

A very beautiful double hemisphere world map surrounded by a florid vine pattern with depictions of the sun & moon according to Kircher and Cassini.
As was the majority of opinion of the day California is depicted as an Island with the NW American coastline stretching almost to China. As this is a French map, France is shown as the major colonial power in North America with the original 13 colonies represented as Virginia.
Australia or New Holland shows a nearly complete northern and western coastline thanks in no small part to the Spice traders who used the southern trade winds, sometimes inaccurately, to reach the Dutch East Indies. Cooks discovery of the east coast was still 70 years away.
The central southern coastline of New Holland is shown joined to the mythical great Southern land or Terres Australis Inconnues. This depiction shows the growing uncertainty of the actual existence of a great southern land, as more data reached Europe, contradicting the long held belief in a vast southern continent "balancing" the globe, to Europe in the north.
The voyages of Drake, Cavandish, and others are shown along with Nuyts discoveries on the South Australian coast on his voyage in 1627. New Holland is noted as having been discovered in 1644 while on the other hand a number of the earlier Dutch discoveries are also noted.
Tracks of a number of other explorers are shown as is an outdated route to the Indies, by traversing the Indian Ocean directly to Java in a north easterly direction. By 1617 the VOC required all their ships traveling to the East Indies to take the route pioneered by Hendrik Brouwer in 1610 which was to utilise the strong winds known as the Roaring Forties sailing in a south easterly direction and then turning due north to Java on nearing the Australia coast.
Below the map are tables of French text listing the nations of the world and geographic terms.

The Atlas Historique published by Henri Chatelain was part of a major work of its time, an encyclopedia in seven volumes, including geography as one of its main subjects. The text was by Nicholas Gueudeville and the maps by Chatelain. The Atlas included one of the finest map of America (four sheets) surrounded by vignettes and decorative insets. The Atlas Historique was completed between 1705 and 1720, further issues were published up to 1739. The series was published in Amsterdam, with Chatelain’s maps based on those of G. Delisle. (Ref: M&B; Tooley)   

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - White
Age of map color: - Later 
Colors used: - Pink, green, yellow 
General color appearance: - Authentic 
Paper size: - 19in x 17in (485mm x 430m)
Plate size: - 17 1/2in x 13 1/2in (445mm x 345mm)
Margins: - min. 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

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