Carte Réduite Des Côtes Et Du Golfe De Californie

MALASPINA, Alessandro, 1754-1809. Carte Réduite Des Côtes Et Du Golfe De Californie Depuis le Cap Corrientes jusqu'au Port St. Diego D'apris des Observations faites à bord des Corvettes la Descubierta et l'Atrevida et celles de Plusiers Officiers de la Marine Espagnol Madrid 1825. Paris: Dépôt-général de la Marine, 1826.

Single sheet (33 4/8 x 22 6/8 inches, full margins showing the plate mark). A fine and attractive engraved chart of Baja California, northward as far as San Diego, and some of Mexico's northwest coastline, with three insets along the top edge: "Plan du Port de Guaimas", "Plan de la Baie de La Paz", "Plan du Port de Pichilingue", with original hand-colour wash and outline, the title within an elegant oval cartouche upper right, with lines of latitude and longitude, and the logo of the Depot de la marine lower left (one or two short marginal tears).

Provenance: with Suarez 9/92; from the important cartographical library of Warren Heckrotte, his sale, Rare Cartography, Exploration and Voyages, Part II, December 3, 2015, Lot 235.

This chart was first issued by the Spanish government in 1825, then reissued by the Mexican government in the same year without attribution. The Spanish issue was used by W.H. Emory in the construction of his map "Military Reconnoissance of the Arkansas, Rio del Norte, and Rio Gila". See Emory, Notes of a Military Reconnoissance..., p114: "The coast is taken from old Spanish charts, published in Madrid in 1825, kindly furnished me by Captain Wilkes." Barrett 3199; Orozco y Berra, 1277.