Prompted by the need for English charts, Seller had begun work on his English Pilot in 1671 and in 1675, following volumes on northern and southern Europe, issued this world volume. Seller used mostly Dutch sources, and it was probably the fact that some of these charts were already as much as 50 years out of date that encouraged Pepys to appoint Captain Greenville Collins to properly chart the coastlines of Britain in 1681. This copy of the Seller Atlas Maritime probably dates from around 1680 and, bound in contemporary speckled calf, has all the charts mounted on thick paper and guards. Given a high estimate of £35,000, it went on to sell for £42,000.
Sold a little under estimate at £22,000 (Arkway) was a 1668, French text edition of Jacob Colom’s sea atlas that was previously known only from the existence of a frontispiece bound into one of only two known copies of the Dutch edition of the same date. The list of maps calls for 45 double-page charts of the coastlines of Europe, Asia and America, as in the Dutch edition, though only 44, all outline coloured, are present in this copy in early 18th century panelled calf.
Sold at £40,000 was a fine and rare Spanish text edition of Johannes van Keulen’s famous sea-atlas, a 1683 ...Atlas de la Mar containing 50 coloured engraved maps and charts and in a restored contemporary binding of calf panelled in gilt and with a central arabesque of Atlas holding an armillary sphere and armillary cornerpieces.
World map from a fine copy of John Seller’s Atlas Maritimus..
Slightly shaved at the lower margin, this is the world map from a fine copy of John Seller’s Atlas Maritimus.., which contains 20 double-page charts “describing the sea-coasts, capes... in most of the known parts of the world”.
