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Rare sailing chart of the area around New York Harbor and Long Island, issued in Laurie & Whittle's North American Pilot. Centered on Staten Island, York's Bay and Constable Point, extending north to Hells Gate, NewYork Island, Netwon Inlet, Bushwick Inlet, Wallabout Bay, Crown Point, the Battery and Ship Yards and soth to the Shrewsbury River. Also extends East to include Amboy andth Raritan River, noting (Samuel?) Holland's House and east to Jamaica Bay and Plumb Island. The North American Pilot is among the rarest 18th Century sea atlases. Many of the maps are taken from surveys performed by British officers and surveyors whose work was left incomplete as a result of the American Revolution, who in turn sold the information or shared it with the commercial map and chart makers of the period, after the British were defeated and run out of the Colonies. A marvelous dark impression of this rare map. Only one appearance of the map in a dealer catalogue in the past 25 years (Old Print Shop Vol LX, #7), this example being the same copy of the map.
Robert Laurie (ca. 1755-1836) and James Whittle (1757-1818) formed their Fleet Street, London-based firm upon the 1794 death of their employer Robert Sayer, himself one of the dominant print and mapmakers of the last half of the 18th century.
Laurie & Whittle started managing Sayer's business as early as 1787. They took over all managerial duties when Sayer's health flagged in 1792, and they changed the imprint in 1794 upon his death. Sayer left the two a 21-year lease on the shop (at £100 a year) and on Sayer's Bolt Court premises, as well as an option to acquire stock and equipment at a preferential price of £5,000 payable over three years.
Robert Laurie retired from the firm in 1812, and his role was assumed by his son, Richard Holmes Laurie (1777-1858). The younger Laurie worked with James Whittle until the latter died in 1818. After R. H. Laurie died in 1858, Alexander George Findlay, FRGS (1812-1875) purchased the firm from his daughters. The firm continues today under another name, specializing in yachting charts.
Laurie & Whittle were prolific print and map publishers, and throughout their careers, they produced numerous very important and rare works. They carried on Robert Sayer's atlas business and were responsible for editions of The Complete East-India Pilot and The American Atlas.