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This rare sea-atlas is apparently a version of van Keulen's Eene Verzameling
Van Nieuwe Zee-Kaarten Van Noord-America In Het Groot Beginnende Van Kaap
Charles, Of De Golf Van St. Laurens, Tot Aan De Golf Van Mexico ...
Koeman records two examples of the sea-atlas with title-pages. The first, with the title dated 1785, is in the Nederlandsch Historisch Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam. The second, with the title undated, is in the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan. The example being described was assembled for ship-board use, so there is no title. Also the maps are printed on very thin paper and then pasted together in such a way that the right-hand side of the first chart backs onto the left-hand of the second, and so on. The two outer pages are then covered with the traditional protective blue-backing, associated with charts supplied for ship-board use, and then stored as a roll in a pigeon-hole. Even the individual charts are of great rarity. The British Library's Map Library has none of the charts listed in its CD-ROM catalogue, while Sellers and van Ee list only one of the six charts in the collections of the Library of Congress. The atlas was issued into a flooded market. A large number of sea-atlases were compiled by British and French mapmakers for use during the Revolutionary War: the market collapsed with the end of the war, and poor sales account for the rarity of the atlas today. The Editors would like to thank Jonathan Potter, of Jonathan
Potter Ltd., for permission to collate the atlas, and reproduce the
charts.
References: Dr. I.C. Koeman Atlantes Neerlandici Vol. IV (Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1970), Keu 143A John R. Sellers and Patricia Molen van Ee Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies 1750-1789 A Guide to the Collections in the Library of Congress (Washington: Library of Congress, 1981), no.219: 'The Coast Of New Schotland ...' |