Rare ‘Oriental Pilot’ annotated by its original owner

£95,000

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The Oriental Pilot; Or, East-India Directory:

Containing a Collection of Charts, both General and Particular; for the Navigation, not only of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, with the China Seas, but of those also between England and the Cape of Good Hope; improved and chiefly composed from the last edition of the works of Mr. d'Apres de Mannevillette, with many additions and corrections; and the insertion of All the New Discoveries made by the English, Dutch, French and Spaniards, &c. The whole compiled from Draughts, Surveys, and Journals, communicated by the Officers, and Marine Surveyors of the East-India Company and others, being a useful selection, from the Complete East-India Pilot. A New Edition, Containing forty-six Charts.

WHITTLE, James and LAURIE, Robert
London,
Robert Laurie and James Whittle,
1799
Folio (533 by 380mm; 21 by 15 inches), letterpress title-page and Index leaf listing 47 engraved maps with a contemporary manuscript note next to 44 "A New Chart of the Banda Sea" stating that it is "not yet Published". 45 numbered engraved maps on 46 map sheets, including 42 double-page and or folding and four full-page, extra-illustrated with a manuscript map in pen and ink and colour wash on the front free endpaper. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt, loose linen cover.
12880

To scale:

notes:

notes:

A superb example of Laurie and Whittle's exceptionally rare 'Oriental Pilot' in unusually fine condition and annotated by its original owner, James McFarland, during his voyages in the Atlantic and the South African coast between 1799-1803.

Published as a practical guide to navigators aboard ships of the Royal Navy and East Indiamen, and often taken to sea, all variants of Laurie and Whittle's 'Oriental Pilot' are scarce and often found in a very used condition. ...

bibliography:

bibliography:

Phillips Atlases 3169-70 and 3172 (no edition with the 1799 title-page listed).

provenance:

provenance:

Provenance:
1. With the ink library stamps and annotations of James Hepburn MacFarland RN (1769-1852), and thence by descent.