COLLINS, Capt. Greenville (1643-1694). Newcastle upon Tyne. London: William Mount and Thomas Page, 1738.

COLLINS, Capt. Greenville (1643-1694). Newcastle upon Tyne. London: William Mount and Thomas Page, 1738.

Single sheet (23 ½ x 20 inches, full margins showing the plate mark). Fine engraved map of the coastal surroundings of Newcastle upon Tyne on the East coast of Britain, with two insets, the title within an elaborate cartouche middle-right and legend lower-left, engraved by Herman Moll after Greenville Collins (very small separation along the fold on the lower margin not affecting the image, lightly toned, some spotting).

THE FIRST HYDROGRAPHIC CHARTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. Originally published in Greenville Collins' "Great Britain's Coasting Pilot Being a New Survey of the Sea Coast" including two insets depicting the coastlines to the North and to the South of the river Tyne. A large cartouche set in front of two ships in full sail reads, “To the Worshpl the Master and the Rest of the Gentlemen Bretheren of Trinity-Hous Newcastle upon Tyne This Draught is humbly Presented and Dedicated by Capt. G. Collins Hydrohe. to the King.” Another cartouche of drapery upheld by two putti explains the charted tides, “The Depth of the water within the Barr in ye River Tyne, in Blyth, Seaton Sluce and Sunderland is set downe in Feet, the figures above the line show ye Depth at highwater, and below the line lowwater in Spring-Tyd’s.”

Below this cartouche the engraver is identified as H. Moll. Herman Moll was employed by Greenville Collins and later became a highly influential publisher and cartographer in London. Captain Greenville Collins was appointed to the position of His Majesty’s Hydrographer by Charles II in 1681, and was commanded to “make a survey of the sea coasts of the Kingdom by measuring all the sea coasts with their exact latitudes, the true plots of all harbours, rivers, roads, bays, creeks, islands, soundings, and the setting and flowing of tides’ which he surveyed over the course of seven years and finally published in 1693 (Hyde 2009). Verner, MCS #58, 1969. Robinson p.40-43, 1962. British Library Cartographic Items Maps C.25.b.11. For more information about this map, or a warm welcome to see it and other books in our library at 72nd Street, NYC, please contact Tara Mishkovsky, M.A. in the Rare Book Department. Bookseller Inventory # 72TM005