Speer's West India Pilot - WITH MANUSCRIPT CORRECTIONS IN THE AUTHOR’S

WITH MANUSCRIPT CORRECTIONS IN THE AUTHOR’S HAND PERHAPS FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE DAUPHIN de FRANCE (LOUIS XVI) EX-COLL. LORD WARDINGTON SPEER, Joseph Smith, Captain (d. 1837). The West-India Pilot: containing Piloting directions for Port Royal and Kingston Harbours in Jamaica, in and out through the Kays, &c. Morant Harbour, Morant Kays, Blewfields Bay, Manteca Bay, and Lucia Harbour. Directions to anchor in Donna Maria Bay, and Cape Nichola Mold, on the island of Hispaniola. The true courses and distances through the windward passages, with directions for all the anchoring places, &c. Certain directions for running down to Jamaica from the eastward, on the south side of Puerta Rica, and Hispaniola (otherwise called St. Domingo). Courses, distances, and anchoring places, from Jamaica to the Gulf of Florida; with directions to anchor at Cape Corientes, Cape St. Antonio, off the Colorados, Bay Hunda, the Havanna, the Matanzas &c. from Jamaica to Black River on the Mosquito Shore, and from thence to every Bay, Harbour, River, &c. to the Bay of Honduras: and from thence back through the South Channel. All the anchoring places, depth of water, descriptions of the trading rivers, and ports, to the southward of Black River, as far as Porto Bello and Carthagena; and from Jamaica to the Bay of Campeache. The latitudes of the head lands, islands, kays, and harbours, in all these parts of the West-Indie. The whole Illustrated with A Number of Maps and Plans engraved by the best Artists, describing The Ports and Bays above-mentioned: With the true Soundings, laid down with the utmost Exactness. By Captain Joseph Smith Speer; Who served upwards of twenty years in the West-Indies. London: for the Author and sold by S. Hooper, 1771. Second edition, expanded. Here is what AI says it’s worth: $50,000. Cost: Wardington sale (part two, Sotheby’s London, 10 October 2006, Lot 486: £20,400 = $38,052. Folio (15 15/16” x 10 ¼”, 404mm x 261mm): binder’s blank, π2 Α2(–Α2) Β-H2 I2(I1+χ1) K-S2, binder’s blank. 38 leaves, pp. [6] (title, blank, dedication, blank, 2pp. to the public), 1 2-30 [2] (“An account of the Island of Ratan,” blank) 31-67, [1] (advertisements). [=vi, 69, i] With 26 hand-colored engraved maps, of which 23 are double-page, 2 folding and 1 single. Bound in contemporary mottled calf. On the spine, 6 raised bands. Title and author gilt to the second panel. A curled dolphin within a coronetted circle gilt to the panels. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards. All edges of the text-block sprinkled red. Scuffed generally, with some loss at the fore-corners. The lower half of the rear cover filled with new calf mottled to match. End-papers renewed. A crease to the upper fore-corner, initially moderate but eventually mild or beyond detection. Occasional patches of soiling or the odd spot of foxing. Pigment oxidation to the verso of the maps. Added in ink manuscript to the end of the preface (p. vi): “Examined and Corrected by ——” before (printed) “The Author.” and ink corrections and additions to pp. v, 9, 10, 27, 29, 34, 35, 39, 43 and 52 (11pp. total). Graphite marginalia to the “Plan of the Harbour of S.t Juan de Port O Rico,” apparently in a different (but still early, English) hand, converting yards to miles & calculating latitude or longitude; that plate with a split at the lower edge of the fold. Gilt white leather bookplate of Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease, Lord Wardington, to the rear paste-down. Captain Joseph Smith Speer is a nebulous figure, essentially unknown outside his Pilot — i.e., a naval atlas with a view to steering ships — that was first published in 1766. That first edition, with half as many maps, also describes the author (anonymously) as having “served upwards of Twenty Years in the West-Indies,” suggesting that the figure was also accurate for 1771; perhaps he began his service in the mid-1740’s. The intervening decades saw a major shift in the importance of British holdings around the Caribbean, as French resources were diverted southward from Canada, and the Americans were growing restless for independence. The text of this second edition is virtually identical — a page-for-page resetting, with some corrections or additions (see below; the text of the 1766 edition stops at p. 53) — to that of the first, but the complement of maps has been doubled (13 to 26), providing a great deal more practical information for the pilot. A full list of maps follows, with those new to this edition marked with an asterisk: A plan of the Harbour of Port Royal, in the Island of Jamaica. *A Plan of Port Antonio, on the North-East Side of Jamaica. Plan of Blewfield’s Harbour, in the Island of Jamaica. Plan of Lucia Harbour on the North Side of Jamaica in Lat.d 18°. 23". Plan of Mantica Bay on the North Side of Jamaica. A Plan of Cape Nichola Mole, at the N.W. End of the Island of Hispaniola. Latitude 19°. 58". N. *Plan de la Rade Du Port Paix, a la Côte Septentrionale de Saint Domingue. Plan du Cap Francois Et de ses Environs. *Plan of the Harbour, and City, of Havanah, on the North Side of the Island of Cuba. 23°. 5' N. Latt.e Long.e West from London 82°. 57'. *Plan of the Bay of Matanzas Lying on the North Side of Cuba, in the Latt.d 23°. 10". North. *Plan of Vera Crux, Lying in the Gulph of Mexico, in Lattitude 19°. 10". North. A Chart of the Bay of Honduras A Plan of Port S.t Fernando de Omoa near Honduras. *Plan of the Fortification now finishing in the Port of S.t Fernando de Omoa in Latt.d 15.50 N. A Plan of Port Royal Harbour Rattan. A Plan of Blewfields Harbour, on the Mosquito Shore. *Island of Old Providence *Plan of Carthagena Harbour and City in Latt.d 10°:26 to 10°:15 North. Plan du Cul De Sac De Leogane, ou Le Port Au Prince. Plan of the Harbour of S.t Juan de Port O Rico *Aiguiade de Port o Rico, Situated On the West End of that Island, in 18°. 23". North Latitude. *The Bay of Ocoa, on the South Side of the Island of S.t Domingo, in the Latitude 18°. 12". North. *Plan du Port de Gouadaquini now called Jekil Sound in the Province of Georgia in North America Latitude 31°:13' North. Plan of the Entrance into Cape Fear Harbour North Carolina. *Plan of the Town, and Harbour of Puerto Vello. {Lat.de 9°. 10'. Long.de 79°. 50'.} *References for the Plan of the City and Suburbs of Carthagena. The expansions trace growing and shifting British interests in the region: Santo Domingo, Cuba, Veracruz and Cartagena. Given the rising tension with the American colonies, it is also notable that the map of the Jekyll Sound in Georgia — Jekyll Island being owned by a staunch Royalist — has made it into the broader strategic sphere of the West Indies. Speer’s Pilot is rare. Only two examples (including the present item) have come to auction in this century per Rare Book Hub (the last recorded first edition came to the market in 1966); the other example was uncolored. Of the 23 examples in institutional collections (per OCLC), most appear to be uncolored or colored in outline.[1] In that respect alone, the nuanced full color of the present volume may be unique, and that is no surprise, given the subscription — in what one has no reason to doubt is the author’s hand — indicating that it was personally reviewed and emended by Speer himself. The Library of Congress’s example of the 1766 edition contains some emendations, some of which have been made to the letterpress of the 1771 edition (e.g., “to clear the Colorados” on p. 15). The vast majority of the manuscript corrections present in the LoC example are repeated in the present example, although not apparently in the same hand. One can only imagine the author’s frustrations at having to make the same corrections in a revised edition! Even more intriguing is the possibility — bizarre, admittedly — that this revised strategic atlas for the contested West Indies may have been in the library of the Dauphin (heir apparent) of France. The crowned dolphin, repeated in the panels of the spine is the traditional symbol of the heir apparent to the French crown (le Dauphin; the title comes from the dolphin in the arms of Guigues IV, count of Vienne; the seigneury was sold to the Philippe VI on the condition that the king’s eldest son take the title). The Dauphin could only be the future Louis XVI, who would commit France’s military support to the American cause of Independence, continuing by proxy their long aggression with Britain. Assuming Speer annotated the volume without the knowledge it would come to be owned by his nation’s arch-rival, it is the product of a work of almost unthinkable cartographic espionage. Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease, 2nd Baron Wardington (1924–2005), was a book collector of great renown, building a splendid library at his Oxfordshire home, Wardington Manor. His particular interest was the very finest examples of cartography. His sale (part two, Sotheby’s London, 10 October 2006; the present item lot 486: £20,400 = $38,052) was a landmark in the field. The description notes that the volume was purchased by Charles W. Traylen (for Lord Wardington) at Christie’s London (15 November 1978, lot 184) from an undesignated consignor. ESTC N25953; Phillips, Atlases 2698; Sabin 89248; Shirley, British Library M.SPR.1b. [1] Some examples have a view of Truxillo after the Bay of Honduras chart.

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