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Description

Large and very rare etched diagram of a mid-18th-century first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, published in Paris probably around the time of the 1745 Establishment, which issued in a new series of British ships of the line.

The image is titled in English, Italian, and French, with the 51-item key appearing in both English and French. There are a number of possible explanations for this, but it is rather unusual, having been published in a century that was characterized by near-constant war between Britain and France.  Then again, there would have been real utility in training French officers in the British naval terms. And, even while conflicts raged, most of the time there was uninterrupted trade between the London and Parisian print and map publishers.

The etching was published by Jacques Chéreau. A smaller version of the plate was published by Louis Crepy and engraved by G. Scotin. See the following entry for a description: biblioteca.ufm.edu/library/index.php?title=1081007 A similar image appeared in some examples of the Neptune Francois, with the title: Vaisseau du Premier Rang Portant Pavillon D'Amiral.

Jacques Chéreau spent time in Britain and it is perhaps there that he made the preparatory drawings for this etching. Though it is possible that the image derives from the work of Henri Sbonski de Passebon.

This example includes the following note in French in an early hand:

le flux retarde tous les jours de 48 minutes, depuis le joir de la pleine lune jusqu'a la nouvelle et depuis la nouvelle jusqu'a la pleine il avance tous les jours de 48 minutes
flux ou marée montante reflux, eve, jussant, descendant, retour de la marée

[the flow delays every day by 48 minutes, from the day of the full moon until the news and from the news until the full it advances every day by 48 minutes
ebb or rising tide ebb, eve, rising, falling, return of the tide]

Rarity

Evidently untraced; no copies in OCLC, nor in BnF. Not traced in any work by Sbonski de Passebon nor in general internet searches.

Condition Description
Etching on two sheets of laid paper joined as one. Modern archival linen backing. An excellent example. Early ink manuscript just abaft the ship.