Canada.- Baker (Lt. Col. Sir Edward), Circle of. An Eye Sketch of the Fall of Niagara, manuscript plan centred on the Horseshoe Falls and Goat Island (unnamed), with inset map showing Lake Eerie to Lake Ontario in the upper left corner, with a single road track alongside the west of Niagara River and a Tavern located, ruled pencil border, pen and brown ink, grey wash over pencil, on laid paper with watermark of George III's coat of arms [circa 1801 or slightly earlier], sheet 304 x 188 mm. (12 x 7 3/8 in), minor handling creases, marginal faint soiling, unframed, [circa 1795 or slightly later]

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 manuscript map in a similar hand, and was sold in these rooms [see Lot 6, 31st May 2018])

⁂ Scarce example of the early mapping of Upper Canada, and of the falls "so justly celebrated as the first in the world for grandeur" [John Franklin, British explorer, 1825].

The handling of the present map, specifically the text inscriptions for 'Niagara/ River' and the other various annotations, directly compare with several parts of the manuscript map sold in these rooms (see provenance) that was bound into a copy of Hearne's 'A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay'; the personal copy of Lt. Col. Sir Baker.