An attractively engraved sea chart of the Dover Straits by Claude-Auguste Berey published in the ‘Neptune Francais’ in 1693. This example is the first state, it was issued into the 1770s. It is also notably from the rarer French original issue and not from the Dutch counterfeit. The impact of the Paris edition was so great that within the same year Pierre Mortier had issued a copy in Amsterdam. The Dutch dominance of the chart trade was waning and Louis XIV saw an opportunity and gave the initiative to the French Navy to produce a sea atlas in 1691. It is engraved and printed on Mercator’s Projection using royally appointed engineers and surveyors. This chart extends from Romney to the Isle of Thanet in Kent and on the continent from Dieppe to Nieuport. Pastoureau, M. Neptune Francais A 15; Wardington sale lot 316.