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Description

Extremely rare English sea chart centered on Singapore and the Straits of Malacca.

First state of the William Herbert’s chart of the Malacca-Singapore navigation, the first broadly accurate British sea chart of Asia’s busiest shipping lane, marking a milestone in the revival of hydrography sponsored by the East India Company, and a key chart used during the ascendency of British economic and political power in Southeast Asia and the Far East.

Includes extensive details and soundings, along with two profile views in the lower left corner.  

The English mapmaker William Herbert (1718-95) traveled to India in about 1748 as a purser's clerk. Back home in the early 1750s, he set up a map and print shop on London Bridge, and in 1758, with the encouragement of the East India Company, he introduced a new pilot guide, the New Directory for the East Indies. Herbert gathered superior sources than those used in Mount & Page's The Third Book, consulting such works as Mannevillette's Neptune Oriental, as well as the navigator William Nicholson and the cartographer Samuel Dunn.

William Herbert Biography

The English mapmaker William Herbert (1718-95) traveled to India in about 1748 as a purser's clerk. Herbert's cartographic publishing started to take form in the late 1740s, when he set up a map and print shop on London Bridge. In 1758, with the encouragement of the East India Company, he introduced a new pilot guide, A New Directory for the East Indies. Herbert gathered superior sources than those used in Mount & Page's The Third Book, consulting such works as Mannevillette's Neptune Oriental, as well as the navigator William Nicholson and the cartographer Samuel Dunn. He often worked with colleagues, including Jefferys, Sayers, Dury, and Andrews, and is recorded as a seller of the famous Anti-Gallican map. In 1776 he retired, having apparently made a fortune. His business was carried on by Henry Gregory Sr.