DESCRIPTION: Large antique chart covering the mouth of the Seine river with Villerville on the South bank and Le Havre and St. Adresse on the North bank. Le Havre fortress shown completely encircled with Vauban-type defensive walls. Locations of cannon batteries added in manuscript. This antique nautical chart has been profusely annotated in manuscript apparently by a member of the military or a military engineer. Numerous pencil notations in left and right margins with bearings. Red pen used to draw lines radiating from cannon batteries to delineate the expected range and line of fire. Numerous soundings. Circular stamp of Depot General de la Marine. No. 892. Price 2 francs.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: 1839
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: France
BODY OF WATER: Seine River
CONDITION: Very good
Single horizontal fold, slightly browned. A few small light stains. On heavy wove paper. Right and left side marginal inscriptions in pencil. Manuscript red lines denoting fields of fire.
COLORING: None except manuscript red lines.
ENGRAVER: C.E. Collin
SIZE: 23
" x
34 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 0
PRICE: $225
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