‘In 1692 Pierre Mortier had published a Dutch contrefaçon of the Atlas Nouveau by Alexis-Hubert Jaillot. It was issued in partnership with Pierre Huguetan, a French bookseller resident in Amsterdam, who provided considerable financial backing. Their next project was an edition of Jaillot’s Neptune François, first published in 1693. For this Mortier employed the finest engravers and extended the work with the magnificent Cartes Marines à l’usage du Roy de la Grande Bretagne. It contained only nine charts, eight of which were of British waters. They are engraved by Romain de Hooghe, who was in the employ of William III at the time, and are arguably the most stunning sea charts produced to date.’ (Burden). ‘Few great artists have turned their hands to mapmaking … Romeyn de Hooghe was an exception to the pattern. A celebrated artist from the late seventeenth century, he was responsible for a volume of nine sea charts.’ (Campbell).

This chart is the first in the atlas focussing as it does on the two spheres of William III’s influence as King of England and Prince of Orange. It centres on the Dover Straits and displays the English coast from Eastbourne, Sussex, to Harwich, Essex. The coast of the continent extends from Dieppe to Dordrecht. The extremely ornate cartouche lower right features fine views of Dunkirk which was invaded by an Anglo-Dutch force in 1694, arguably using these charts, and one of Calais. Campbell (1981) pl. 44; Koeman (1967-70) IV Mor E no. 1; Burden (2007) p. 486.