Circa 1785

ST. BARTS – Charta Öerna van till Sverige hörrande Om St Bartholome, c.1785.

A rare eighteenth-century manuscript map of the Island of St. Barthélemy in the West Indies. The island was handed over by the French to Sweden in 1784, who had an interest in gaining a sugar producing colony and declared it a Free Port in 1785, renaming the capital Gustavia. A note in manuscript on the verso signed by Lave Beck-Friis, dated 6 March 1925, implies that the chart probably belonged to the Privy Councillor Count J. B-F, who received it when the island was handed over to Sweden.

Manuscript map of the island of St Barthélemy and smaller islands belonging to Sweden, in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, oriented to the South, brown ink and blue and pink wash on paper watermarked 'C & I Honig', 463 x 585mm, place names supplied in French, settlements shown in red, roads and sandbanks marked in brown ink. (A few minor marginal tears, some marginal dampstaining, rolled.) Provenance: Christie's South Kensington, 18 November 2003, lot 224.