Africa

  Colour lithograph, 120 x 79 cm (47.2 x 31.1 inches) (soft folds slightly age-toned with tiny, partly repaired holes, tiny tears in margins, overall in a good clean condition).  

  The only known example of a fascinating cyanotype (blueprint) plan of Sekondi, capturing the Gold Coast’s (Ghana) main commercial port during the Edwardian boom period of economic and infrastructure development - a value artefact of the the Industrial Revolution and urbanism in Sub-Saharan Africa.  

  A very rare large format work from the sequence of the first broadly accurate maps of the Gold Coast (today’s Ghana), created by the Intelligence Division of the British War Office, with exceedingly detailed coverage of travel routes into the interior and the labelling of the domains of tribal nations, the present edition was made to guide British forces,…

This chart maps the mouth of the Jubba River in southern Somalia, long a vital lifeline for agriculture and trade.  The chart was made from surveys conducted by Commander Giovatto of the Italian Navy in 1908.    Zincograph (Very Good, some light toning and light wear along old folds), 53 x 61 cm (21 x 24 inches).  

An Italian map of the natural harbour of Kismaayo, in the far south of Somalia.     Photozincograph, with navigational markers heightened in yellow and some details added in manuscript in red pen, with pastedown date stamp in lower left corner (Very Good, some wear along old folds), 55.5 x 70.5 cm (22 x 27.5 inches).  

  A rare and highly attractive work of patriotic propaganda, being a large map of Libya celebrating Italy’s invasion of the country during the Italo-Turkish War (1911-2), created early in the conflict by the Societá editoriale milanese.   Colour print (Very Good, clean and bright, some wear along old folds, some minor marginal staining, far right margin, once bearing additional…

The first edition of the first comprehensive, scientifically accurate geological map of Libya, a grand, bilingual (English - Arabic) separately issued production primarily made to aid the country’s burgeoning oil industry; the result of a collaboration between Louis Conant and Gus Goudarzi, two of America’s most esteemed geologists, fulfilling a joint project of the U.S. State Department and the pro-Western…

Lithographed map with original hand colour, dissected into 18 sections and mounted upon original linen, folding into original dark green cloth covers with publisher’s pastedown label, publisher’s advertisements as front endpaper (Wrappers slightly pale with worm holes on the spine, internally clean), 51 x 70 cm (20 x 27.6 inches).

  A fine and scarce sea chart of St. Augustin’s (Anantson̈o) and Tullea (Toliara) bays, amongst the finest anchorages on the west coast of Madagascar, published by the leading chartmakers of Laurie & Whittle.

  Very rare – the first edition of Captain William Nichelson’s masterly large-format sea chart of St. Augustin’s Bay, Madagascar, a key harbour on the Mozambique Channel, along the route between Europe and India, first issued in the 1767 edition of William Herbert’s important atlas, ‘A New Directory for the East Indies’.

  The very rare first edition of the foundational map of the British colonial regime in Egypt; created by the Intelligence Department of the War Office on the eve of the Anglo-Egyptian War (1882), whereby Britain forcibly made Egypt a protectorate, so gaining dominance over the Suez Canal; predicated upon the best sources, the very large four-sheet work was the…

An exquisite ‘objet d’art’, being a unique example of William Faden’s map of the Battles of Abukir and Alexandria (1801), France’s ‘last stand’ in Egypt, printed on silk with details richly embroidered in coloured silk thread, clearly a prestation piece made for a highly important figure.   Copper engraving on silk with details contemporarily heightened in embroidery of coloured silk thread, contemporarily…

The authoritative chart of the harbour of Lourenço Marques (today Maputo, Mozambique), shown in the wake of World War II, showcasing what was one of Africa’s busiest and most modern ports, published by the British Admiralty.   Polychrome photolithograph on thick paper, contemporary hand-stamped price revision to title, rolled (Very Good, overall clean and bright, light wear along vertical centrefold),…

  An intriguing, and likely unique, artefact of the early era of Mozambican independence under the rule of the Socialist FRELIMO movement, being a map of the Mozambican capital Maputo (formerly Lourenço Marques), hastily published in the whiteprint method, that interestingly showcases the city with most of its major streets renamed after Socialist / Communist luminaries such Vladimir Lenin, Mao…

This is the first sea chart of the harbour of Massawa predicated upon proper scientific surveys, as well as one of the only detailed early maps of the city of Massawa as remodeled by the new Italian colonial regime.   Zincograph, with some navigation markers heightened in yellow, some contemporary manuscript navigational additions in pencil (Good, but with noticeable wear…

  An historically significant and beautifully rendered original manuscript map of Le Chateau de Reduit, the official residence of the Governor of Île de France (Mauritius), today the home of the President of Mauritius, depicting what was then a fortified working indigo plantation, a masterplan capturing the estate at an early stage in its development during the French colonial era,…

  An extremely rare separately-issued chart of the important port of Essaouira (formerly Mogador), Morocco, issued when the city was being transformed into the country’s greatest port, by Gerard Hulst van Keulen, masterfully engraved and of an uncommonly beautiful design.

MOROCCO (SPANISH / NORTHERN) / RIF WAR:  CUERPO DE ESTADO MAYOR DEL EJÉRCITO.   Madrid: Talleres del Depósito de la Guerra, December 1927.   Colour photolithograph, on 6 untrimmed and un-joined sheets of thick paper, housed in decorative printed paper sleave bearing blindstamp of the ‘Depósito de la Guerra’, rolling into original crimson tube bearing title in silver lettering (Very…

  Colour print, printed from both sides, 43 x 60 cm (17 x 23.6 inches) (soft folds, otherwise in a good condition).  

  An extremely rare and important sea chart depicting the mouth of the Limpopo River, in southern Mozambique; for centuries the Limpopo was one of the great transport corridors into the interior of southern Africa; the chart is based upon groundbreaking scientific surveys by a team of Portuguese naval officers, led by João António Ludovice, conducted in 1893, when the…

  An extremely rare and attractive late 19th century Portuguese sea chart of the mouth of the Rio Tejungo (today known as the Rio Moniga), a key trading port along the north-central coast of Mozambique, the chart being the first edition of the first scientific, trigonometric survey of estuary, conducted in 1898 by Lieutenant João Carlos da Silva Nogueira of…

An exceedingly rare – 1 of only 3 known examples - and historically consequential map; its contents enraged the people of Porto, helping to fuel the Republican Revolt that occurred there on January 31, 1891; the map, which embraces the midriff of Southern Africa, depicts Portugal’s premier colonies of Angola and Mozambique with greatly reduced boundaries, to the benefit of…