Beschreibung:

Upper Canada.- First Nations.- Bouchette (Lt.-Col. Joseph, Canadian Surveyor-General of British North America, 1774-1841) A Plan of the Province of Upper Canada, manuscript map with decorative title cartouche showing boats of the First Nations people and a wigwam in the upper right corner, the map covers Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario, and includes Fort Defiance (built in 1794), Lake Simcoe (named in 1792), Dundas Street (construction began c. 1791), and the two names for River La Tranche or Thames (officially changed c. 1792), Captain John Deserontyon's settlement at the Bay of Quinte, and General "Mad" Anthony Wayne's Fort Defiance, also with some roads and settlements highlighted in red, pen and grey-black ink, red ink, watercolour wash and traces of pencil on wove paper without watermark, signed 'Jos. Bouchette' in the lower right corner, the additional red ink annotations appear to be by another hand, sheet 450 x 645 mm. (14 3/4 x 25 1/2 in), a 20th century hand suggests an attribution in pencil to 'Edward Baker Littlehales' in the upper left margin, and a suggested date in 1805 in the lower left corner, the sheet has a tear in the lower section of the right hand margin running just into the map, other minor nicks to extremities, folds and handling creases, some surface dirt, unframed, [probably circa 1790-1795]. Provenance: James Stevens-Cox (possibly acquired from the same source as the Col. Sir Edward Baker copy of Samuel Hearne's 'A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay', which featured an early map of Upper Canada, and was sold in these rooms [see Lot 6, 31st May 2018]) ⁂ An important and early manuscript map by the man who was to become the Canadian Surveyor-General of British North America, showing key settlements of First Nation tribes. Manuscript maps and plans by Joseph Bouchette are exceptionally rare on the open market, with Joan Winearls recording fewer than a dozen known examples in her 1991 Mapping Upper Canada, 1780-1867 ; all of which are in institutional collections. Out of these, even fewer examples are known to be from Bouchette's early career, causing some difficulties quantifying the hand and style of the young man. In March 1790, Bouchette was hired at the Surveyor General's office in Quebec as an assistant draftsman, where he was essentially employed to copy plans. In 1791 he was appointed land surveyor, but shortly after this he chose to enlist in the Provincial Marine where he served for a number of years. During this time his actions met with noted success, as Mrs Simcoe's diaries show.[1] Yet it was not until December 5th 1794 that he resumed his work as a copyist, and it is possible that it was around this point that he produced the present map. The nature of Bouchette's early manuscript maps, in particular the way that pre-existing map sources would have been copied, explains the slight lack of confidence in line and execution found in the present work, as well as the slight variations in their style. The signature in the lower right, several identified locations (London, Dorchester, and Oxford), as well as the view in the upper right appear to be using the same ink and may well indicate the different additions and stages of the map's production. It is noteworthy that the vignette view of Lake Ontario in the upper right corner was later adapted and used in William Faden's engraved map after Bouchette, 'Map of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada with adjacent parts of the United States of America', published in 1815, which featured two other engraved vignettes after Bouchette [see David Rumsey Map Collection, list no.: 4431.014]. The engraved vignette after Bouchette shows a slightly different composition, with the boat builders and the wigwam relocated and the trees replaced with a convenient giant rock face. The later engraved vignette also includes the 112-gun warship HMS St Lawrence, which was not in active service on Lake Ontario until 1814, the only R