DESCRIPTION: This is an finely detailed antique coastal nautical chart of the western coast of California, which focuses on the Pacific coastline between San Francisco, California and the Umpqua River, Oregon. It is a scarce, rolled, separately issued chart, corrected to 1869, and was first published by the U.S. Coast Survey in 1854. Notable habitations and geographical features on the chart include Empire City, Koos Bay, and Port Orford or Ewing Harbor, Oregon, as well as Crescent City, Reddings Rock, Eureka, Mendocino City, Haven's Anchorage, Bodega Bay, Pt. Reyes, Alcatraz Island, Oakland, Alameda, Union City, and San Francisco Bay, California. The chart identifies numerous soundings, navigational hazards, and aids to navigation.
This antique sea chart features twelve detailed inset coastal elevation views, including the Entrance to San Francisco Bay, Point Arena, Mendocino City Cove, Trinidad Head and City, Cape Mendocino, Red Bluff Entrance to Humboldt Bay, Point St. George, Mack's Arch and Reef, Rogues River, Cape Blanco, Cape Gregory, and Point Reyes. It is a scarce, separately issued, rolled nautical chart of the U.S. West Coast, not the more common folded version on thin paper that was issued with other charts in an annual report to Congress from the Coast Survey.
The chart was printed in 1869 from an electrotype-printed copy of the original hand-engraved copper plate. The U.S. Coast Survey adopted electrotype printing around 1850 because copper plates, being a soft medium, could only withstand print runs of about 200 copies before the plates wore down. To allow for larger print runs, a mold of the original plate was created in wax or another soft medium. Then, using an electro-chemical process (electrotyping), the mold was coated with a metal layer, usually copper. Printers were then able to produce output from the new electrotype copper copy while preserving the original. Electrotype copy no. 6 was done by Mathiot.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1869
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: Pacific Ocean
CONDITION: Very Good.
 No folds, tears or holes. Uniform age toning with strong heavier paper. Fine, sharp impression, a bit light here and there.
COLORING: None
ENGRAVER: McCoy, Knight, Hazzard, and Mezeroth
SIZE: 22
" x
25 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 68
PRICE: $350
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