Les Deux Poles Arctique ou Septentrional, et Antarcticque ou Meridional...Nicolas Sanson (1600-1667). Engraved map with original hand color in outline. Amsterdam: P. Mortier, c.1730. 20 x 24 3/4 inches sheet. This is an authentic antique map of the world shown using a double-hemisphere, polar projection. The map was originally created by Nicolas Sanson and later added to by Johannes Covens and Cornelis Mortier.
The most captivating aspect of this map is the old color, decorative border that surround it, first used by Visscher on his world map Orbis Terrarum. It is made up of four mythological scenes, drawn by the Dutch painter Nicolaes Berchem and depicting Zeus and Neptune in chariots, the rape of Persephone, and Demeter receiving the fruits of the earth.
The two polar projections extend to 45 degrees and display the information from Sanson's 1657 map without any revisions. Two added spheres, not found in Sanson's map show the world centered on Paris in the north and the "antipodes de Paris" in the south with added geographic detail. The polar projections show an incomplete mapping of the Great Lakes, a clear routh of the Northwest Passage through Button?s Bay, and a partial coastline for "Terre de Yezo," which appears to dominate the northern Pacific. Unlike the smaller sphere at the bottom center of the map, the southern hemisphere of the polar projection is almost completely filled with "Terre Magellanicque / Australe et Incogneue," as displays a complete absence of the Australian continent.