09/13/2026
Original 1788 Map Captain Philip Carteret Voyage SOLOMON ISLANDS South Pacific
$129.99
Discover more at our top-rated eBay store!
https://ebay.io/m/1Tgale
Original copperplate engraved hand colored antique map showing the sea-track and some of the islands in the Solomons visited by British explorer Philip Carteret aboard HMS Swallow more than 250 years ago
The map was drawn by Rigobert Bonne, Ingénieur Hydrographie de la Marine, and published in Paris in 1788.
It has a large French style compass rose at the center and three insets.
The map is titled "Isles de la Reine Charlotte," or Queen Charlotte's Islands, as named by Carteret.
It shows what is now referred to as the Santa Cruz Islands dominated by Lord Egmont's Island or New Guernsey, Lord Howe's Island or New Jersey, Lord Edgcombe's Island or New Sark, Ourrys Island or New Alderney, and Swallow Island.
It locates a volcanic island to the north and has a large inset of Carteret's Island and the names of numerous capes including Byron, Barrington, Proby, Trevanion, and Boscawen.
The image area measures 23.5 x 35 cm [9¼" x 13¾"], and the map was engraved by Gaspard André. Relief is shown by hachures, and longitude is measured from Paris.
The map is identified at the upper right as Plate 135, and it is from Atlas Encyclopédique, contenant la Géographie Anciene, et quelques Cartes sur la Géographie du Moyen Age, la Géographie Moderne, et les Cartes Relatives a la Géographie Physique by Rigobert Bonne and Nicolas Desmarest.
Carteret had sailed these waters in 1767, having rounded the tip of South America and headed out into the unknown currents of the Pacific. There he discovered the Pitcairn Islands and sailed on past the Isles of Danger to Queen Charlotte’s Islands, visited 200 years earlier by the Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendaña de Neira, and the Carteret Islands, shown in the large inset at the left.
It is a wonderful record of part of Captain Carteret's historic voyage and would make a handsome display in your den or office.