Speer Joseph Smith Captain (1 results)
More imagesPublished by for the Author and S. Hooper, London, 1771
- Hardcover
- Signed
Seller: Arader Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.Arader Books
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£ 64,787.88
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Add to basketHardcover. Condition: Very good. Second. WITH MANUSCRIPT CORRECTIONS IN THE AUTHOR'S HAND -- PERHAPS FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE DAUPHIN de FRANCE (LOUIS XVI) -- EX-COLL. LORD WARDINGTON. Second edition, expanded. London: for the Author and sold by S. Hooper, 1771. Folio (15 15/16" x 10 ¼", 404mm x 261mm). [Full collation available.…] With 26 hand-colored engraved maps, of which 23 are double-page, 2 folding and 1 single. Bound in contemporary mottled calf. On the spine, 6 raised bands. Title and author gilt to the second panel. A curled dolphin within a coronetted circle gilt to the panels. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards. All edges of the text-block sprinkled red. Scuffed generally, with some loss at the fore-corners. The lower half of the rear cover filled with new calf mottled to match. End-papers renewed. A crease to the upper fore-corner, initially moderate but eventually mild or beyond detection. Occasional patches of soiling or the odd spot of foxing. Pigment oxidation to the verso of the maps. Added in ink manuscript to the end of the preface (p. vi): "Examined and Corrected by ----" before (printed) "The Author." and ink corrections and additions to pp. v, 9, 10, 27, 29, 34, 35, 39, 43 and 52 (11pp. total). Graphite marginalia to the "Plan of the Harbour of S.t Juan de Port O Rico," apparently in a different (but still early, English) hand, converting yards to miles & calculating latitude or longitude; that plate with a split at the lower edge of the fold. Gilt white leather bookplate of Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease, Lord Wardington, to the rear paste-down. Captain Joseph Smith Speer is a nebulous figure, essentially unknown outside his Pilot -- i.e., a naval atlas with a view to steering ships -- that was first published in 1766. The text of this second edition is virtually identical -- a page-for-page resetting, with some corrections or additions (see below; the text of the 1766 edition stops at p. 53) -- to that of the first, but the complement of maps has been doubled (13 to 26), providing a great deal more practical information for the pilot. [Full list of charts available.] The expansions trace growing and shifting British interests in the region: Santo Domingo, Cuba, Veracruz and Cartagena. The nuanced full color of the present volume may be unique, and that is no surprise, given the subscription -- in what one has no reason to doubt is the author's hand -- indicating that it was personally reviewed and emended by Speer himself. Even more intriguing is the possibility -- bizarre, admittedly -- that this revised strategic atlas for the contested West Indies may have been in the library of the Dauphin (heir apparent) of France. The crowned dolphin, repeated in the panels of the spine is the traditional symbol of the heir apparent to the French crown (le Dauphin; the title comes from the dolphin in the arms of Guigues IV, count of Vienne; the seigneury was sold to the Philippe VI on the condition that the king's eldest son take the title). The Dauphin could only be the future Louis XVI, who would commit France's military support to the American cause of Independence, continuing by proxy their long aggression with Britain. Assuming Speer annotated the volume without the knowledge it would come to be owned by his nation's arch-rival, it is the product of a work of almost unthinkable cartographic espionage. Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease, 2nd Baron Wardington (1924-2005), was a book collector of great renown, building a splendid library at his Oxfordshire home, Wardington Manor. His particular interest was the very finest examples of cartography. His sale (part two, Sotheby's London, 10 October 2006; the present item lot 486: £20,400 = $38,052) was a landmark in the field. The description notes that the volume was purchased by Charles W. Traylen (for Lord Wardington) at Christie's London (15 November 1978, lot 184) from an undesignated consignor. ESTC N25953; Phillips, Atlases 2698; Sabin 89248; Shirley, British Library M.SPR.1b.
