[Florida]: Des Barres, Joseph F. Wallet:

$25,000 · Offered by William Reese Company

A PLAN OF THE HARBOUR OF ST. AUGUSTIN IN THE PROVINCE OF GEORGIA COMPOSED & PUBLISHED FROM SURVEYS DEPOSITED IN THE OFFICE OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS OF ... A very rare and highly important sea chart of the harbor of St. Augustine from The Atlantic Neptune, the finest marine atlas of North America's east coast, produced during the Revolutionary War. Here in the first state (of three).This superbly drafted map features the magnificent harbor of St. Augustine, located on Florida's Atlantic coast. Des Barres based this rendering on surveys conducted on behalf of the Board of Trade by William Gerard De Brahm, who was appointed Surveyor General for the Southern District of North America in 1764. "Shows soundings and shoals at the entrance in the harbor, fortifications, cultivated fields, settlements lots, roads, a detailed plan of the town, and relief. Oriented with north to the right" - Sellers and Van Ee. Interestingly, "this plan has far more land detail than other charts" in The Atlantic Neptune (NMM, Stevens Collection). Of particular note are the detailed depictions of the town of St. Augustine itself, showing the fort, the Castillo de San Marcos, at the far north end of the settlement, as well as a lighthouse on Anastasia Island, located near the site of the current lighthouse, constructed in the 1870s.It is important to note that the very year this map was printed, the region was caught up in the dramatic action of the Revolutionary War. The Spaniards, who had just

• Printing: first

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