America Septentrionalis..

This map is Lotter's version of Guillaume Delisle's map of North America, with several modifications. The Great Lakes are based on the Coronelli model showing the French strong points at Tadousac, Quebec, Fort Sorel, Montreal and Fort Frontenac.

In the Pacific are shown the routes of different voyages. The most interesting aspect of the map is the region of California. Delisle was the first cartographer to revert to a peninsula form for California.

Lotter follows that here, but engraved the map with a small gap at the head of the Gulf of California, thus leaving the possibility still open for the island theory. The large cartouche features a Native American and a ship's captain.

Tobias Conrad Lotter (1717 - 1777) was a German engraver and map publisher. Lotter married Euphrosina Seutter (1709-1784), elder daughter of Matthäus Seutter. He began working at his is father-in-law's map business about 1740. Between 1740 and 1744 he produced, under Seutter's imprint, the Atlas minor, Praecipua orbis terrarum imperia, regna et provincias, Germania potissimum tabelli. Upon Seutter's death, in 1757, the firm's stock was taken over by his son, Albrecht Karl Seutter (1722-1762), who himself died in 1762, just a few years later. The remaining Suetter map plates were subsequently divided between Lotter and the publisher Johan Mitchell Probst (1727 - 1776). With the support of his sons, Matthäus Albrecht (1741-1810), Georg Friedrich (1744-1801) and Gustav Conrad (1746-1776), Tobias Conrad Lotter succeeded in building on the economic success and professional reputation of his father-in-law. In time, Lotter became one of the most prominent mid-18th century map publishers working in the German school. 

Etching on copperplate with fine original handcolour, in good conditions