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BELLIN, Jacques Nicolas (1703-72)

[St. Lucia] 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
 
 
BLAEU, Willem (1571-1638)

Insulæ Americanæ in Oceano Septentrionali, cum terris adiacentibus

Amsterdam: Blaeu, 1640. Engraved with period outline colour. French text. Mild soiling more evident at the edges. Repaired split at base of center fold. Image size (including text): 15 x 20 3/4 inches. Sheet size: 18 x 23 3/8 inches.

This attractive map called the American Islands is essentially a coastal chart of the eastern seaboard from the Chesapeake to Florida, all of the Gulf of Mexico to the Orinoco River in Venezuela, and part of the Pacific coast of Central America.

The map was based upon the Hessel Gerritz map of circa 1631, which was separately published and is extremely rare. Gerritz was the cartographer for the Dutch West India Company, working under Johannes de Laet, who was in charge of Dutch interests in the Americas and Africa. The new material for this map was gathered in 1628 during a voyage through the region that may have included Chesapeake Bay and certainly included all the places from the Bahamas south and southwest depicted in the map.

Koeman, Bl 17, #81; Goss, Blaeu's The Grand Atlas of the 17th Century, p. 124-125; Burden, #242 and #236.

#13895$2,500.00
 
 
BROWNE, Patrick

[Jamaica] A New Map of Jamaica, In which the Several Towns, Forts, and Settlements are accurately laid down...the Greatest part drawn or corrected from actual surveys made by Mr. Sheffield and others, from the year 1730 to the year 1749

London: [At lower center:] "Published according to Act of Parliament 1755.". Copper-engraved wall map with inset: "A General Plan of Port Royal" by J. Bayly, on two joined sheets, with original outline colour, in very good condition. Sheet size: 29 x 54 1/4 inches.

An unrecorded state of the "The first large-scale map of Jamaica"

This large, dramatic map of Jamaica, the first large scale map of the island, corresponds to the new importance and interest the island had for the British due to the vast fortunes compiled in sugar and slaves. This map, which includes topographical details and some roads, shows the sites of many sugar plantations, most of which were located in the southeast near the harbors.

Kapp notes two states, the first with the imprint of John and Carrington Bowles (1755), the second with that of Carrington Bowles and Robert Wilkinson (1790). This example has no imprint, but still bears the date 1755. It is probably an intermediate state between those listed by Kapp.

Aside from the lack of imprint, this example is identical to Kapp's first state. The map is the most detailed and exact for Jamaica published to its time. It locates "Gentleman's Seats," sugar works, churches, taverns, "crawls," "ginger, coffee, and indigo settlements," barracks, etc. The large inset shows both the portion of Port Royal destroyed in the earthquake of 1692, and that part which was still standing. Twenty-four sites in the town are identified by key.

Sellers & Van Ee, Maps & Charts of North America & West Indies, 1916; See Kit Kapp, "The Printed Maps of Jamaica up to 1825," (MCS 42), 71, plate 25 (first state.) Not in National Maritime Museum Catalogue.

#10566$7,000.00
 
 
[CATESBY, Mark (1683-1749)] - Johan Michael SELIGMANN (1720-1762)

[Southeastern North America] Carolinae Floridae nec non Insularum Bahamensium cum partibus adjacendibus delineato ad exemplar Londinense in lucem edita a..., Seligmann

Nuremberg: Seligmann, 1755. Copper-engraved map, with full original colour, in good condition apart from an expertly repaired split to an old fold. Sheet size: 19 1/2 x 25 5/8 inches.

A fine copy of the first and only Continental edition of a 'Map of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands,' here with particularly fine period hand-colouring.

The English edition of this map (first published in Vol.II of Mark Catesby's Natural History of South Carolina, and the Bahama Islands, London, 1743) is now virtually unobtainable. This has greatly increased the desirability of this fine Continental version, which is itself quite scarce. Seligmann's Sammlung verschiedener auslaendischer und seltener Vögel was published in nine parts between 1749 and 1776, and included a German translation of Catesby's work with re-engraved versions of his images, including the present map. Catesby's work was the first natural history of American flora and fauna. The Catesby scholar, G.F. Frick calls this map 'a good representation of the better English ideas about the geography of North America' in the period.

It is not generally recognized that the English version of this map appeared in two states. On the first state of 1743, the territory on both sides of the Mississippi was coloured green, to indicate that the entire region was in the hands of the French. A second state was included in the third edition of the Natural History in 1771, altered to show the political realignment brought about by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The territory on the east bank of the Mississippi, which had been acquired by Britain, was now coloured green; the territory to the West, which now belonged to Spain, was coloured blue. The present German edition corresponds with the English first state. The map shows Southeastern North America as far west as the Mississippi River, plus the nearby Caribbean islands of the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola

Cf. Cumming, The Southeast in Early Maps (1998 ed.), 210 & 292

#18372$15,000.00
 
 
CORONELLI, Vincenzo Maria (1650-1718)

[Cuba] Isola Cuba Descritta

Venice: V.M. Coronelli, [circa 1692]. Copper-engraved map, with modern outline colour. Sheet size: 13 1/2 x 19 inches.

A very attractive map of Cuba, by a celebrated Venetian cartographer

This very fine map of Cuba is from Coronelli's Isolario dell' Atlante Veneto, a magnificent atlas of the world's islands. The map captures the long expanse of Cuba, with the island's main towns indicated by pictorial symbols. To the south are numerous islands including the enchanting "Jardin de la Reya" (Garden of the Queen) and the Cayman Islands, and to the northwest lie the Bahamas. The handsome Baroque title cartouche in the lower-left corner is adorned with allegorical iconography alluding to the great bounty of Cuba.

#19699$750.00
 
 
DE L'ISLE, Guillaume (1675-1726) & Phillippe Buache (1700-1773)

Carte de L'Isle de la Martinique Colonie Françoise de l'une des Isles Antilles de l'Amerique Dressée sur des Plans manuscrits entr' autres sur celui de Mr. Mouel Ingenieur du Roy Assujetis à des Observations Astronomiques et conciliés avec des memoires particuliers de feu Mr Guill. Delisle Premier Geographe de S. Majesté...

Amsterdam: Covens and Mortier, c. 1757. Engraved with early outline colour. Printed on laid paper. In perfect condition. Image size: 18 1/8 x 23 1/8 inches. Plate mark: 18 3/4 x 23 3/8 inches. Sheet size: 21 7/16 x 26 inches.

A handsome 18th century topographical map of Martinique

This highly detailed map of Martinique delineates the hilly terrain, forests, roads, houses, and even the sugar plantations. The island was to the French what Barbados and Jamaica were to the English: immensely profitable sites for sugar production.

Guillaume de l'Isle (1675-1726) was the son of a cartographer and a pupil of Jean Dominique Cassini, who, among other important contributions, aligned the study of astronomy to the study of geography. Under Cassini's direction, observations were made from locations all over the world that enabled longitudinal calculations to be made with much greater accuracy. De l'Isle carried on this exacting work with remarkable dedication and integrity, constantly revising and improving his maps. While precision was his primary goal, his maps are invariably elegant and attractive.

Jean (Johannes) Covens and Corneille (Cornelius) Mortier were brothers-in-law, who carried on the book publishing business established by Pierre Mortier in Amsterdam in 1685. Pierre Mortier's company owed much of its success to his access to French publishers, whose publications he re-issued in handsome editions.The elder Mortier died in 1711; his wife continued the firm until she died in 1719. In 1721, Covens and Mortier formed a partnership, Covens having married Agatha Mortier in the same year. They continued the business by publishing enlarged editions of Sanson, Jaillot, and De L'Isle, as well as some of the later Dutch cartographical masters such as De Wit and Allard, and of course Pierre Mortier.

Koeman, C & M 8 #118

#17065$1,500.00
 
 
DE L'ISLE, Guillaume (1675-1726)

Carte de L'Isle de Saint Domingue. Dressée en 1722 pour l'usage du Roy Sur les memoires de Mr. Frezier Ingenieur de S. M.... Insulæ S. Dominicæ Tabula Accuratissima

Paris: Chez l'Auteur sur le Quay de l'Horloge, circa 1730. Engraved with period outline colour. In superb condition with the exception of a faint waterstain along the top of the central crease. 18 3/8 x 24 5/8 inches. Plate mark: 18 3/4 x 24 7/8 inches. Sheet size: 19 7/8 x 26 1/2 inches.

An important early map of the island of Hispaniola, by the celebrated French cartographer, Guillaume de L'Isle.

Guillaume de l'Isle (1675-1726) was the son of a cartographer and a pupil of Jean Dominique Cassini, who, among other important contributions, aligned the study of astronomy to the study of geography. Under Cassini's direction, observations were made from locations all over the world that enabled longitudinal calculations to be made with much greater accuracy. De l'Isle carried on this exacting work with remarkable dedication and integrity, constantly revising and improving his maps. While precision was his primary goal, his maps are invariably elegant and attractive.


Considered one of De L'Isle's finest maps, the chart depicts Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Spanish never settled the entire island, though nominally it was theirs, and French buccaneers who had established strongholds along the western coasts were later joined by French planters, who wrestled away the western part from the Spanish officially in 1697 to form Saint Domingue. There through the hard work of African slaves, they established sugar plantations and refineries. The sugar industry was still in its youth when this map was first issued by De l'Isle. The political alignments changed radically several times before the present-day division was established.

Moreland and Bannister, Antique Maps p. 132; Tooley's Dictionary of Mapmakers, 395

#17079$1,250.00
 
 
DE L'ISLE, Guillaume (1675-1726)

Carte des Antilles Françoises et des Indes Voisines. Dressée sur les memoires de Mr. Petit Ingenieur du Roy..

Paris: Chez l'Auteur sur le Quay de l'Horloge, Juillet 1717. Copper-engraved map, with period outline colour. Fine condition apart from some light old discolouration to left blank margin. Plate mark: 25 1/8 x 14 5/8 inches. Sheet size: 26 1/2 x 19 7/8 inches.

An excellent early issue of this fine early map of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, from Guadeloupe to Grenada, by one of the great French mapmakers.

Guillaume De L'Isle (1675-1726) was son of a cartographer and a pupil of Jean Dominique Cassini, who, among other important contributions, aligned the study of astronomy to the study of geography. Under Cassini's direction, observations were made from locations all over the world that enabled longitudinal calculations to be made with much greater accuracy. De L'Isle carried on this exacting work with remarkable dedication and integrity, constantly revising and improving his maps. While precision was his primary goal, his maps are invariably elegant and attractive.

This map depicts some the highly disputed islands that figured in the sugar trade and the wars between France and England throughout the 18th century. The purview of the map is from Guadeloupe in the north to Grenada in the south, and it includes Martinique, St. Vincent, Barbados, Dominica and the Grenadines.

Phillips Maps p.1054

#17059$950.00
 
 
FADEN, William (1750-1836, publisher). - Charles ROBERTS and George GAULD (1732-1782) surveyors.

[Florida, Bahamas] 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
 
 
FLEURIAU, Aimé-Benjamin (1709-1787)

[Saint Domingue] 'Plan de l'habitation de Sr. Fleuriau depuis 1743 qu'il a commencé a l'Etablir, Jusq'en 1749 ... Suivant Le Nouveau Plan Tire par Mr. Delagrené En 1753 ....'

[No date, but circa 1753]. Manuscript, in black ink, with touches of colour, on laid paper, in very good condition. Sheet size: 20 1/2 x 28 1/4 inches.

A unique early image from Saint Domingue, present day Haiti near Port-au-Prince: a manuscript plan of a plantation which was the foundation of a colonial fortune built on sugar by La Rochelle-born, Aimé-Benjamin Fleuriau, with images of the house and sugar mill

A detailed plan of the "habitation de Mr. Fleuriau." The property is apparently divided into outlots, each measuring approx. 200 x 300 [metres?], and each devoted to a specific crop or purpose; for example, "orengere" (orange grove?), "citronniere" (lemon grove?), "Indigoterie" (Indigo?), etc. At the centre, the main house and outbuildings are carefully rendered to the front and right of the house is what appears to be a large outdoor sugar mill. A long canal and numerous regular roads crisscross the property. The various plans (those of 1749 and 1753, etc.) are superimposed upon each other.

Aimé-Benjamin Fleuriau was born in La Rochelle in 1709. In 1729, at the age of 20 he sailed to Saint Domingue (Hispaniola) to join his uncle, leaving behind family debts of more than 120,000 'livres'. He worked hard and prospered and impressed his uncle so much that he was made a beneficiary of his uncle's will. Aimé-Benjamin Fleuriau bought the property pictured here on 12 April 1743, less than a month after his uncle's death. It was described as a habitation, the property of 'Sieur Claude-Alexis Mathieu, sise à la Croix-des-Bouquets, canton de Bellevue, plaine de Cul-de-Sac', and it was apparently the first step leading quite rapidly to Fleuriau's accumulation of a fortune made from sugar. Fleuriau departed for France in 1755, and returned to La Rochelle where he cleared his family's debts and lived in some splendour until his death in 1787, when his personal fortune was put at '4 millions de livres'. His main residence in La Rochelle is now the 'Musée du Nouveau Monde'.

#18498$9,750.00
 
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