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Louis Stanislas d’Arcy de la Rochette [Delarochette] had the specialised editing and hydrographic draughtsman’s skills and expertise in great demand by the chart publishers in the late 17th Century.
The original chart from which this print is taken, was published by William Faden who was renowned for the quality of his work. He succeeded the map publisher Thomas Jeffreys as Geographer to the King in 1771, and as such had exceptional advantages over other publishers as he had access to government material which was not generally available to his competitors. The Admiralty was fortunate to acquire Faden’s chart printing plates upon his retirement in the early 1820’s.
Rather than publish standard atlases as we know them today, Faden made up collections to suit his customers’ requirements, and bound them without title or list of contents, but this particular version of the chart is held in the UK Hydrographic Office archive as a single sheet. A black and white copy was made from the original and this copy was hand coloured and then reprinted for the Admiralty Collection at the Hydrographic Office.
The profile views of the islands make this chart especially attractive. |
