Maritime charts and instruments catalog

Very fine brass astronomical equinoctial ring with two brass circles.

Instruments catalog

Pascaart van Europa alsmede een gedeelte vande Kust van Africa. . .

Charts catalog

Saique batiment dont les turcs se servent. . .

Maritime Prints catalog

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Sea charts
whether printed or in manuscript form, often have a romantic appeal far stronger than that of land maps. The romance of the seaman's intrepid voyages through uncharted waters can often be sensed when examining a chart.

Before the development of printing, there was an active chart-making industry based around the Mediterranean in places like Genoa, Venice and Majorca. From such centers, manuscripts, 'rutters' and 'portolans' were produced for the Mediterranean and Southern European Atlantic coasts. Throughout the sixteenth century the manuscript portolan, in single sheet or atlas form was the only relatively accurate source of navigating information.
Lucas Jansszoon Waghenaer chart Spieghel der Zeevaerdt By 1584 an experienced seaman and pilot, Lucas Jansszoon Waghenaer, had published his compilation of charts, "Spieghel der Zeevaerdt". During the first half of the seventeenth century, Amsterdam saw the production of many printed charts and chart books, most of which are now very rare. The Blaeu's, Gerritz, Barents, Colom, Lootsman, Doncker, van Loon, Robijn, Roggeveen, Goos, and de Wit are renowned for their output.

Another important firm of chart producers was the Van Keulen family, who published charts - both manuscript and printed - and atlases from about 1680 for over one hundred years. Their dominance in the Dutch trade was confirmed by appointment, in 1714, of Gerard van Keulen as hydrographer to the V.O.C. Mortier chart

The 18th-century navigators relied on nautical charts produced by a handful of chart makers and instrument sellers who worked in Paris, Madrid and the City of London. These privately produced charts, or "bluebacks" as they were known from the tough blue manila paper on which they were mounted, were in circulation amongst the merchant fleets of the world until the Second World War.
If not blue-backed, charts were often printed on thick paper or thin paper laid on thick in order to prolong their working life.

Under Louis XIV French interest in the sciences incorporated a reappraisal of all cartographic techniques. It was here that the first central organization for chart provision was founded in 1720; the Dépôt Général de la Marine, followed by Denmark in 1784.
The Spanish established the Direccion de Hidrografica in 1800, and the American U.S. Coast Survey followed in 1811.