DESCRIPTION: SOLD
Fine first edition French Chart of the Harbor at Sydney, Australia (Port Jackson) based on surveys carried out by French Captain Bougainville . Baron Hyacinthe de Bougainville was the son of the famous French Pacific navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. An officer of the French navy, in 1825 he commanded an expedition that took the ships Thetis and Esperance to Macau, Manila and New South Wales.
This French survey, by Baron de Bougainville, was the fourth state-sponsored delineation of the topography and hydrography of Port Jackson. Oval seller's stamp "Cercle Maritime. Brest".
The first depiction was after a compass survey conducted over just nine days by John Hunter and William Bradley, published by George Raper in 1791. During an expedition to the south-west coast of Australia, de Freycinet (1802) updated Hunter's chart with additional soundings from his own survey of Port Jackson. John Septimus Roe led the third survey in 1822 followed with this chart published in 1828 by French explorer Hyacinthe de Bougainville.
An original, treasured gift for anyone with interests in boating or sailing near Sydney. At top, a fine, engraved vue or "View of the Entrance to the Harbor at Port Jackson." Dated 1828 but 1837 with its publication as Plate 52 from:
Journal de la navigation autour du globe de la fregate la Thetis et de la corvette l'Esperance pendant les annees 1824, 1825 et 1826 /Publie par ... M. le Baron de Bougainville. Paris : Arthus Bertrand, 1837. Grave par Ambroise Tardieu d'apres les dessins de M.E.B. de la Touanne, Lieutenant de Vaisseau. Ecrit par Besancon. Prix un franc.
(Fr. Rare et grande carte marine de Port Jackson (Sydney, Australie) publiée par le Depot de la Marine de France.) Port Jackson, aussi appele Sydney Harbour, est le port naturel de Sydney en Australie.
Top left-hand corner: Voyage de la Thetis et de l'Esperance.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: 1837
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: Australia
BODY OF WATER: Sydney Harbor
CONDITION: Good.
 Excellent image. Clean on excellent heavy wove paper. 4" archival repair to the external margin at bottom right outside of the neatline (see photo). Darker at the edges but clean and bright inside neatlines. Two small very light brown spots.
COLORING: None
ENGRAVER: Ambroise Tardieu
SIZE: 25
" x
19 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 0
PRICE: $
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