DESCRIPTION: Exceedingly rare original antique chart of the Caribbean islands of Anguilla, St. Barts, St. Martin, Dog Island, and Prickly Pear Island by Swedish cartographer and physician Dr. Samuel Fahlberg (1758-1834) . This beautifully engraved chart may well be the only available small-scale sea chart of these four Caribbean Islands by a Swedish cartographer. No record an example of this chart in WorldCat.
Fahlberg's 1792 chart depicts a strategically important group of neighboring Caribbean islands divided among three European colonial powers: Sweden, France and the Dutch Republic, and Britain. Centered upon the maritime approaches to the newly established Swedish free port of Gustavia, the chart documents the channels connecting Saint Barthélemy, St. Martin, and Anguilla (Kortta Passagem, Lainga Passegem) at a formative moment in the development of Caribbean commerce. Published immediately before the French Revolutionary Wars transformed Gustavia into a major neutral trading center, it represents an early Swedish effort to chart the waters surrounding the kingdom's recently acquired Caribbean colony.
Fahlberg moved to St. Barthelemy (St. Barts / Barth) as a physician in 1784 after the island was ceded to Sweden by France. In 1803 Fahlberg was named Director of Survey of St. Barts; he thoroughly mapped the island for the Swedish West India Company ( Svenska Vastindiska Kompaniet ) 1.
Contains a detailed inset of Gustavia on St. Barths titled "Speciale-Chart ofver Inloppet och Hammen Carenage samt Staden Gustavia. According to the John Carter Brown library: "The main town on Saint Barthélemy was called Le Carenage by the French, but renamed Gustavia by the Swedes when the island was given to the Swedes by Louis XVI in return for free port rights to Gothenburg, Sweden". A 'carenage' is an area typically along a shallow beach where wooden ships without access to a drydock could be beached at high tide, or careened, in order to clean, caulk, and repair their hulls.
On chain-laid paper with watermark: "C & I Honig". Engraved by the Swedish chart maker Erik Akerland (1754–1832). Stockholm: 1792. Text is in Swedish.
1 Reinhartz, Dennis. "The Caribbean Cartography of Samuel Fahlberg". History of Cartography Symposium. Springer. 2012. http://www.springer.com/978-3-642-19087-2.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1792
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: N/A
BODY OF WATER: Caribbean
CONDITION: Fair.
Repaired weak spot at fold and a repair to close a hole near the bottom margin. No impact to the image. Slight darkening to the right side of the chart.
COLORING: None
ENGRAVER: Akerland
SIZE: 26
" x
21 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 68
PRICE: $9500
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