Rare blueback chart of the Eastern Seaboard from Philadelphia to the Gulf of Florida.

The chart contains numerous soundings, compass roses, coastal profiles, remarks, and comments on the Gulf Stream. To the land are seven insets of the most prominent ports and rivers including: St Augustin, the Nassau River, St Mary's River, Port Royal, Charleston, Delaware Bay and River, and the Patuxent River. Lighthouses are marked in red and yellow.

The chart is the work of William Heather (1766-1812) an important English engraver, chartmaker and publisher, who also operated a retail premises selling charts and nautical and mathematical instruments. He was apprenticed in the Stationers' Company, made free in 1789, whereupon he joined the business of John Hamilton Moore, a chartmaker and publisher, but left to set up own business in 1793. Between 1796 and 1804 he worked in partnership with William Williams, trading as Heather & Williams. The majority of his output was engraved by John Stephenson. He died on 2nd October 1812, aged 46, and was succeeded by John William Norie and George Wilson, who bought the business and took it on to new heights.

Given the date of the chart, July 12th 1812, it was probably one of the last charts worked on by Heather. The chart also bears the imprint of Heather's successor John Norie, who has updated the chart to 1815, and thus represents one of the earliest charts produced by the new firm. Norie would not publish a sales catalogue of his charts until 1816.

John William Norie (1722-1843) was an important hydrographer, chartmaker and publisher, a writer on navigation, and publisher of nautical manuals, as well as selling globes and all manner of nautical instruments. He was agent for the sale of Admiralty charts, and chart seller to the East India Company and Trinity House. He was born in London of Scottish parents, and apprenticed to William Heather, a noted chartmaker, as a draughtsman. His first charts appear under the Heather imprint from 1795 onwards. In 1813, he bought William Heather's business, in partnership with Charles Wilson. The partnership lasted until 1840, when Norie sold his share of the business to Wilson and retired. Wilson continued to trade as Norie and Wilson, the firm merging with J. Imray and Son in 1899, and surviving to the present as Imray, Laurie, Norie and Wilson Ltd.

Norie had a prolific output of charts, reissuing Heather's stock and adding new charts of his own making of all parts of the world, these too many to list. Important publications include his 'A new and complete epitome of practical navigation' (1805); 'A complete pilot for the south coasts of England and Ireland' (1817); 'The new Mediterranean pilot, containing sailing directions for the coasts of France, Spain, and Portugal, from Ushant to Gibraltar' (1817) and 'Norie's set of celestial maps for finding the principal stars in the heavens' (1825).

Rarity

We are only able to trace one institutional example of the present chart: in the Huntingfield Map Collection in the Maryland State Archives. We are unable to trace any example appearing at auction since the war.