Singapore Sea Chart ~ Year 1755
Decorative navigational chart of Singapore and the Strait of Malacca, originally published almost 300 years ago in Paris, France. This attractive early sea chart shows the southern part of Malaysia, the island of Singapore and the eastern part of Sumatra. This chart was created by the greatest French hydrographer of the eighteenth century, Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, and first appeared in 1755.
This framed fine art print is being sold with a numbered certificate. This certificate guarantees that it is an original work belonging to a series of maximum 28. Your artwork has been printed with great care and in limited numbers, making it a print only a select few will own.
Limited edition series of 28, signed and numbered
Directly taken from the authentic print
Highest quality fine art textured papers
The best archival quality inks
The chart contains several illustrated profile views of land as seen from the straits. These views are centred at the top of the chart, providing important context for original viewers and adding to the chart’s visual interest today. The illustrations are notated with their place names and navigation directions from known landmarks, making their locations easily traceable on the chart.
The Malaysian coastline on this chart is extraordinarily detailed, a testament to the diligence of Bellin and his fellow cartographers at the Dépôt de la Marine (French Hydrographic Office.) The seal of the French Hydrographic Office can be seen at the bottom right, consisting of an anchor surrounded by three fleurs de lis.
The cartouche located at the bottom left includes several lovely botanical illustrations. Included in the cartouche is a note that the map has been drawn from the records and manuscript map of “Sr. Dauge, Pilote du Service de la Compagnie des Indes,” a ship captain in service to the Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes Orientales (also known as the French East India Company) who had travelled through the region.
Rhumblines (lines of constant compass bearings) and water depth soundings are included throughout this chart marking its purpose as a navigational tool. The chart is bordered by neat longitude and latitude scales. Separate longitude scales are included for major prime meridians, including London, the island of Tenerife, Cap Lezard (Lizard Point, Cornwall), and l’Isle de Fer (El Herrio) in the Canaries.
Several annotations provide crucial navigational information. South of “Pulo ou Isle Panjang” (Malay for “Long Island,” modern-day Singapore), Bellin warns there are “a large number of small islands whose location is unknown.” Other annotations include two “sandbanks to be wary of” in the Malacca Strait, and a warning that “all the islands” south of the Governor’s Strait “seem to make one large land.”
Navigating through the Strait of Malacca and past Singapore was a treacherous endeavour in the eighteenth century, and this chart and its accompanying atlas would have been the prized possession of any sailing vessel attempting this journey.