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BELLIN, Jacques Nicolas (1703-72)

Carte de L'Isle de Sainte Lucie

Paris: J.N. Bellin, 1763. Copper-engraved map, in excellent condition, stamped on upper-center with the stamp of the French royal maritime printing office: "De l'Imp. de Dep. de la Mar. à Versail". Sheet size: 24 1/8 x 32 1/2 inches.

A very elegant and detailed map of St. Lucia by one of the greatest French cartographers

This very fine map of St. Lucia surrounds the island in seas traversed by rhumb lines. The rugged topography of this, one of the most scenic islands of the Caribbean, is captured in great detail. Oriented with the east towards the top of the map, the island features two broad ranges of mountains, which were formed by extreme tectonic activity. In the centre of the island is a plain that features a road, "Chemin de la Longue Chasse ou de la Soufriere" that runs the length of the island. In the lower left of the map is the "Pointe du Gros Piton", the distinctive mountain formation that cascades into the sea, and that is today St. Lucia's most celebrated site. The various aspects of the coast are labelled in great detail, and many places near the sea are dotted with the cultivated fields of sugarcane and banana plantations. Three cartographic insets adorn the upper portions of the map, each depicting one of the island's best harbours. Intended for practical use by mariners, each harbour is heavily detailed with depth soundings and notations of hazards. The insets are "Plan du Port du Carenage" (site of St. Lucia's modern capital of Castries), "Plan du Cul de Sac Des Roseaux" and "Mouilliages du Grande Islet et du Choc". The map is embellished with a very fine title cartouche, bordered by transitional Rococo and Neoclassical motifs, and surmounted by the French royal arms.

St. Lucia was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1500, and named for St. Lucy of Syracuse. The French assumed auspices over the island in 1660, having signed a treaty with the indigenous Carib tribe. Over the next century and a half, the island went back and forth fourteen times between French and British sovereignty before the British assumed an enduring hegemony in 1814. The island became an independent member of the Commonwealth in 1979.

This map was part of the l'Hydrographie Française, a great sea atlas, published by Bellin in two volumes from 1755 to 1766. This was one of the finest works of the prolific Bellin, the "Hydrographer to the King", who was so highly regarded that the British (who were almost always at war with France) made him a member of their Royal Society.

Map Collector's Circle 81, (St. Lucia) 6-9, pl.1

#19542$2,500.00
 
 
FADEN, William (1750-1836, publisher). - Charles ROBERTS and George GAULD (1732-1782) surveyors.

A Chart of the Gulf of Florida or New Bahama Channel, commonly called the Gulf Passage, between Florida, the Isle of Cuba, & the Bahama Islands: from the journals, observations and draughts of Mr. Chas. Roberts, master of the Rl. Navy, compared with the surveys of Mr. George Gauld &ca.

London: printed for W. Faden, 1 August 1794. Copper-engraved map, hand-coloured in outline. Good condition, with small neat repairs to fold and upper and lower margin, old light creasing. Sheet size: 24 x 30 1/4 inches.

A spectacular and rare sea-chart of southern Florida, the Keys, the north coast of Cuba and the Bahamas.

The British Admiralty assigned George Gauld, a Scots-born surveyor, the task of charting the difficult waters off the Gulf Coast of West Florida. Between 1764 and 1781 Gauld mapped an area that extended from New Orleans to the western coast of modern-day Florida. Recognizing the importance of his work to all those who travelled in the area, Gauld readily shared his work with scientific societies in America. During the Revolutionary War, Gauld was forced to suspend his work in the Dry Tortugas and Florida Keys due to attacks by American privateers, and in 1781, he was taken prisoner at the Siege of Pensacola. He was subsequently taken to Havana and then New York, before being repatriated to England, where he died shortly afterwards.

Cf. Ware, John D. George Gauld, Surveyor and Cartographer of the Gulf Coast (Gainesville, Fla.: Univ. of Florida, 1982).

#20525$22,500.00
 
 
KEULEN, Johannes van (1678-1727)

Pas kaart van de Zee kusten van Espianola met de Zee kust van Nuevo Reyne de Granada

Amsterdam: Johannes van Keulen, [1687]. Copper-engraved map, full contemporary hand-colouring, heightened with gold. Sheet size: 20 7/8 x 25 inches.

A very fine copy of this excellent and very early chart of the island of Aruba, the southern coast of Haiti and the Dominican Republic and part of the northern coast of Columbia.

This beautifully-finished map was published by innovative Dutch cartographer and publisher, Johannes van Keulen, in the 1687 second edition of the third volume his Sea-Atlas [or Zee-Fakkel]. The chart includes a fine decorative title vignette, just above which is the island of Aruba, to the left the north coast of Columbia and as far west as Santa Marta. In the right corner is an enlarged detail of the bay of Tiburon (Baya de Tiburaon.) on the southwestern-most tip of Haiti. Along the uppermost margin, the south coast of the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) is shown, with the capital city of Santo Domingo, the oldest continuously occupied city in the Americas, marked at the mouth of the Ozama River.

Cf. Koeman IV, Keu109B

#24940$1,500.00
 
 
NORIE, John W. (1772-1843)

[Southern portion of the Gulf of Mexico with inset charts of Jamaica, Mobile Bay, the Harbour of Vera Cruz, the Harbour of Tampico]

London: J. W. Norie & Co., 1836. Black and white copper engraving. Four vertical creases where folded, multiple creases at centerfold. Repaired split in center fold about two inches long. There are erasible pencil lines and dates that chronicle a sea voyage]. Sheet size: 23 1/2 x 63 1/2 inches.

A large, handsomely engraved chart of the Gulf of Mexico south of Cuba and including all of the Caribbean Islands, the eastern coast of Central America and the northern coast of South America

John William Norie was the leading chartmaker and writer on navigation of his time. Born in London, he attached himself to William Heather at an early age and by the age of 25 was making charts independently. William Heather ran a shop for navigators known as the Naval Academy and the Naval Warehouse. (Dickens later used the Naval Warehouse in Dombey and Son). It sold nautical instruments, sea charts, guides and instructional books on navigation. By 1815, Heather had retired, and Norie was in command. His accomplishments were considerable and lasting, including several atlases of sea charts:Complete West India Pilot (first published in 1828), from which this chart comes; East India Pilot (1816); North Sea & Baltic Pilot (1824); Complete North America and United States Pilot (1825); as well as general works on navigation, most notably The Epitome of Practical Navigation (1805), which was the standard work throughout the 19th century.

This highly detailed, large chart shows all of Jamaica, Santo Domingo, all of the Caribbean Islands, the north coast of South America and the east coast of Central America. It includes inset charts of Jamaica, Mobile Bay (Alabama), Vera Cruz and Tampico.

#15528$2,500.00
 
 
VOOGHT, Claes Janszoon (d. 1696). - Johannes van KEULEN (1678-1727).

Pas-kaart vande Golfe van Mexico

Amsterdam: Johannes Van Keulen, [1687]. Copper-engraved map, period hand-colouring. Inset of the waters near Vera Cruz. (Expert restoration at sheet edges). Sheet size: 20 7/8 x 24 inches.

Van Keulen's scarce 17th century chart of the western Gulf of Mexico, oriented with west to the north.

Van Keulen's rare chart of the western portion of the Gulf of Mexico "covers the coastline from the panhandle of present day Florida around to the Yucatan peninsula. The main feature of this map is its originality of form. It is the first sea chart of the western portion of the Gulf of Mexico detailing the coastal waters of present-day Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. The geography is largely derived from the exceedingly rare Hessel Gerritz chart of c. 1631" (Burden). As expected, most of the toponyms are Spanish and the mouth of the Mississippi is labelled Baja de Spirito Sancto. Oriented to the west, "it represented the most sophisticated rendering of the coast then available" (Martin & Martin).

The Van Keulen family were chart and instrument makers, and publishers of nautical textbooks, books on sea law, shipbuilding, almanacs and more. Founded by Joannes van Keulen (c.1654-1715), the firm remained in business for over 200 years. For the publication of his Zee-Fakkel, Keulen retained geographer and mathematician Claes Janszoon Vooght.

Burden's second state, with the page number "14" added to the lower left corner, but before later additions and re-engravings.

Burden, The Mapping of North America II: 592; Martin & Martin, Maps of Texas and the Southwest p. 85, plate 11.

#25772$7,000.00
 
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