Lot 251: LAURIE, ROBERT

AND JAMES WHITTLE.
A NEW AND ENLARGED BALTIC PILOT, COMPREHENDING A COLLECTION OF SURVEYS AND GENERAL CHARTS, FROM LONDON TO ST PETERSBURG. LONDON : R. LAURIE & J. WHITTLE, 1802 [--1806]

A NEW AND ENLARGED BALTIC PILOT, COMPREHENDING A COLLECTION OF SURVEYS AND GENERAL CHARTS, FROM LONDON TO ST PETERSBURG. LONDON: R. LAURIE & J. WHITTLE, 1802 [--1806]

Second edition, tall narrow folio (730 x 305mm.), 10 engraved charts, comprising 4 double-page and 6 oversize charts folded to fit the format (three on two sheets joined, two on four sheets joined and the general chart of the Baltic on eight sheets joined as four), contemporary blue marbled paper boards, modern calf spine with Pease crests gilt, some separation to the original folds, some strengthening at folds and joins, light offsetting, binding with corners renewed, board edges slightly worn

LITERATURE

Not in the British Library, Library of Congress or the National Maritime Museum

NOTE

The Baltic Pilot was first published by Robert Sayer c.1790 (the title-page was undated but the latest date on any chart is 1790), and then republished by his successors Robert Laurie and James Whittle with the contents entirely revised or re-engraved, with the title-page dated 1802.

This copy is a later issue of Laurie and Whittle's second edition. Chart 5 is a new chart of the North Sea, drawn by John Purdy from the observations of Joseph Huddart and William Bligh (among others listed in the title), with the imprint dated 25 March 1806, and replaces the chart called for in the list on the title-page. The eight-sheet chart of the Baltic is credited to a Swedish survey made under the direction of Vice Admiral Nordenankar, published by Laurie and Whittle in 1796, but with the inset Chart of the Eartholms dated 1805.

Sayer's Baltic Pilot was the next improvement on, and the natural successor to, Sir John Norris's Compleat Sett of New Charts (see lot 324 for the 1728 edition), the first British sea-atlas devoted to the Baltic Sea region.