Cape of Good Hope - Cape Town - South Africa

Seller Table Bay c1675

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Stock Code 30052

Price: £ 3000

John Seller

c.1675

A Draught of Cape Bona Esperanca by John Seller, Hydrographer to the King

55 x 44 cms. Uncoloured. Top margin trimmed to edge of engraving, as issued & seemingly without any visible image loss. A few minor nicks along top and bottom sheet edges. Overall a fine example.

Exceedingly rare. John Seller's exceedingly scarce and attractive chart of the Cape of Good Hope and present-day Cape Town. The chart was published in both Seller's Atlas Maritimus and Book III (Oriental Navigation) of the important English Pilot. John Seller was Hydrographer to both Charles II & James II, being granted a monopoly by the former in 1671, for a period of 30 years. Seller lived for many years in Wapping and had a shop at Exchange Alley, near the Royal Exchange in the City of London, where he sold maps, charts, globes and other books and publications. He was closely involved in the initiation of the English Pilot, published & reissued in 5 volumes from 1671 through to the second half of the 18th Century. In essence these were collections of English charts encompassing all regions of the World, and closely copied from Dutch cartographic models of the period. Due to impending bankruptcy, Book III of this first edition of the English Pilot was never completed by Seller. This example with the imprint of John Seller only. After almost going bankrupt in 1675, Seller was forced to take a consortium of other contemporary cartographers - Colson, Fisher, Atkinson & Thornton - into partnership, a partnership that subsequently evolved into the firm of Mount and Page in the early 18th Century. The chart is distinguished by the splendid perspective view of the Cape and Table Mountain dominating the upper section of the sheet, and incorporating a small inset view of the Dutch fort. The title appears upper left supported by two skin-clad native Hottentots bearing spears and surrounded by sheep. Below a finely detailed chart of the coasts of the Cape from Saldanha Bay to False Bay. A later edition by Mount and Page is updated with a new title piece and includes the names of Table and False Bays.

Tooley : MCC 61 : Maps of South Africa #248; Norwich Map 219 (later state)

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