Dartmouth, England: A Hand-Colored 17th Century Sea Chart by Captain Collins

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This hand-colored sea chart of the area around Dartmouth, England is from "Great Britain's Coasting Pilot. Being a New and … Read more This hand-colored sea chart of the area around Dartmouth, England is from "Great Britain's Coasting Pilot. Being a New and Exact Survey of the Sea-Coast of England", first published in 1693. It depicts the city of Dartmouth, England and its surrounding waterways. Three insets in the lower chart demonstrate the topographic elevations of the coastline.

These sea charts by Captain Greenvile Collins (1643-1694) are beautiful, colorful and striking, as well as historically very important to the British navy for approximately 100 years. Captain Collins was appointed “His Majesty’s Hydrographer” by King Charles II and asked to survey the coast of Great Britain and plot all of the harbors, rivers and islands, etc. This took seven years and the resulting charts were first published in 1693. They were published until 1792.

We have 16 sea charts from this series that are all the same size and are framed and matted identically. The frames are a unique plexiglass sleeve design, measuring 27.75" x 23' x 0.5" and the mats are a cream color. There is a central fold, as issued and a tiny spot in the right lower corner. The chart is otherwise in excellent condition.

The provenance for these sea charts is very interesting. They were owned by Tom Perkins, who is considered one of the fathers of Silicon Valley. He was one of the founders of Kleiner Perkins Cauffield and Byers, the first big and most influential Silicon Valley venture capital company. Perkins himself was an avid sailor and had at the time the largest and most technologically advanced sailing yacht in the world, the Maltese Falcon. See less