£4,000 - £6,000
Bellin (Jacques-Nicolas), an atlas of 46 hydrographical nautical charts, almost certainly from L'hydrographie françoise, s.l., s.n., n.d., [Paris, c. 1765], prefixed by a two-page engraved chart of different powers' national naval flags and ensigns, the maps delineating the Atlantic coasts of France, North America, including Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean/West Indies, all of which - except one - are two-page, infrequent off-setting, the last seven affected by varying degrees of water stains, later 20th c brown quarter-morocco over buckram boards, olive morocco lettering piece, contemporary 18th c stained red edges, folio (66.1 x 51cm)
Provenance: 1) Sotheby's, 1st-2nd July 1968, lot 264, sold (£400) to Maggs Bros. Ltd., bidding on behalf of 2) the vendors' late father.
Bellin's nautical charts make up the best, most comprehensive and most accurate sea atlas of his time. Its success can be put down to more accurate and more detailed than any English atlas. The reason for this was the establishment of a central office for hydrography in France at the beginning of the 18th century, to which the naval officers had to provide accurate information.
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