DESCRIPTION: Large French antique nautical chart of the North Sea and the British Isles published in 1867 and updated with corrections to 1878. Detailed coverage includes the coasts of France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Norway from Bordeaux, France at the south all the way to Averoy, Norway at the north. Includes the Faroe, Orkney, and Shetland islands, the Skaggerak, English Channel ( la Manche ) , Irish Sea, and North Sea.
Several hundred coastal lighthouses and lighted navigational aids are highlighted with a red dot and a yellow highlight. Three pasted on paper corrections at bottom when issued by the Depot de la Marine. Number 2367.The Depot de la Marine was established in 1720 under the French Ministry of the Navy to collect, preserve, and publish nautical charts, sailing directions, and maritime intelligence for the French naval service. Its purpose was both archival and practical: to centralize geographic knowledge gathered from voyages, surveys, and colonial administration, and to convert that information into standardized charts for navigation. Over the eighteenth century the Depot became the principal hydrographic authority of France, issuing engraved sea charts that incorporated data from naval expeditions, colonial outposts, and scientific voyages.
Following the French Revolution, the institution was reorganized and its chart production expanded, particularly during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as global maritime competition intensified. The Depot de la Marine supervised official surveys, revised earlier charts, and maintained copperplates for continued reissue as coastal knowledge improved. In 1886 it was formally reorganized as the Service hydrographique de la Marine, the predecessor of today’s French hydrographic office. Charts bearing the Depot imprint remain important records of French naval activity, colonial expansion, and the technical development of European hydrography.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1878
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: British Isles
BODY OF WATER: North Sea
CONDITION: Very good.
Clean with no condition issues on heavy paper. Some darkening at top and bottom left corners in the margins. One horizontal fold as issued.
COLORING: None except red and yellow highlights on aids to navigation.
ENGRAVER: Jacobs
SIZE: 24
" x
35 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 0
PRICE: $250
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