Catalog Archive
Auction 156, Lot 416

"Chart of the Atlantic Ocean. With an Illustration of the Character and Rout of a Storm Which Occured on the American Coast in August 1830", Blunt, Edmund

Subject: North Atlantic

Period: 1831 (dated)

Publication: The American Coast Pilot

Color: Hand Color

Size:
12.4 x 7.4 inches
31.5 x 18.8 cm
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This uncommon chart of the Atlantic Ocean stretches from eastern North America, the Caribbean, and the northern tip of South America to Portugal, Spain, and a portion of Africa. The Gulf Stream is featured, and a key explains the different types of arrows used to depict varying winds and currents. A few notes chronicle the hurricane season of 1830 by pointing out the date and location of the storms. A compass rose with a fleur-de-lis radiates rhumb lines in the chart's center. Engraved by William Hooker.

Edmund March Blunt (1770-1862) founded the company circa 1796 and published the first edition of Captain Lawrence Furlong's American Coast Pilot in 1796. The earliest editions of Blunt's work did not contain any charts and focused instead on verbal descriptions of sailing directions, tide tables, latitudes and longitudes, and navigational landmarks. In later editions, Blunt included charts of harbors and sections of the coast, some produced by others as well as those of his sons, Edmund and George William. After Blunt's retirement, his sons continued to issue sea charts, considered some of the best American charts of the time due to their use of the latest U.S. Coast Surveys. In 1867 the Blunts sold the rights to the American Coast Pilot to the U.S. Coast Survey.

References:

Condition: B+

Issued folding, now pressed flat, with a few abrasions, two of which have been reinforced on verso with archival tape, some extraneous creases, and a few short fold separations in the bottom blank margins that have been repaired on verso with archival tape.

Estimate: $100 - $130

Sold for: $75

Closed on 2/17/2016

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