Australasia

Map of Oceania and Australia (“New Holland”), published in London by John Pinkerton. It covers most of the South Pacific, including New Zealand, New Caledonia (Nouvelle Calédonie), New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and the New Hebrides. It is one of the best regional maps of Oceania that appeared in an English atlas during that period (it shows, for example, Van Diemen’s Land no longer joined). It is precisely dated 18 April 1813. To finance the publication of his “Modern Atlas”, in 1808 Pinkerton began to sell his maps through a subscription system. Every few months, his customers would receive several updated maps, until 1815. That year, he reissued all his maps in his “Modern Atlas”. Thanks to that unusual business model, all of Pinkerton’s large maps are dated with their year, month and day, in accordance with the copyright laws. Pinkerton was a notable Scottish cartographer. Together with John Thomson and John Cary, he redefined cartography and helped to establish Great Britain as a world leader in mapmaking in the early 19th century. This is a map with original colours, uncommon.