Roseaux, St. Lucia Island Map by Bellin, Handcolored Engraving, 1763
US$270
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1763
Sheet size
32 × 23.5 cm (12.6 × 9.3 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-13618-10
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Very good condition with minor brown spots mostly outside the image. Study the image carefully.
About this sheet
The harbor of Roseaux on St. Lucia, an original copper engraving with hand color by Jacques Nicolas Bellin, dated 1763 in the cartouche. The title reads "Plan du Cul de Sac des Roseaux dans l'Isle de Ste. Lucie", with a scale of eighty toises, and the sheet is numbered Tome I, No. 97 from Bellin's Petit Atlas Maritime.
A narrow, deep inlet runs up the middle of the sheet, covered with soundings in fathoms that show the depth of the anchorage. A spit of land marked "Banc rempli de Rochers a Chaux" (a bank full of limestone rocks) divides the inlet, and "Habitations" are shown on the shore where the houses stand. The land on both sides is drawn in hill hachure, with woods in green wash, and a large compass rose with rhumb lines occupies the lower left. The title is set in a decorated cartouche at the upper left.
Bellin was the French Navy's Hydrographer, and his plans of harbors and anchorages for the French West Indies served as working references for mariners as well as illustrations in his atlas.
