Le Neptune françois,

2 parts in one volume, large folio (635 x 505mm.), Part 1: elaborate engraved allegorical title by Jan van Vianen (after the original by P. La Pautre after J. Berrin), printed title in red and black with fully coloured vignette, dated 1693, full-page engraved plate of comparative nautical scales in Dutch, French and English, 6 pages of text in French, 3 shipping plates, 29 double-page engraved charts; Part 2: elaborate engraved allegorical title by Romein de Hooghe (Atlas maritime), printed title (Cartes marines a l’usage des armées du Roy de la Grande Bretagne), in red and black with coloured vignette and dated 1693, 9 elaborately engraved and etched charts (mostly double-page) of the French and English coasts and including a large folding chart of the Mediterranean all by Romein de Hooghe, incorporating finely-detailed insets showing ports and harbours, all fully coloured by a contemporary hand with the compass roses and towns heightened in gold, contemporary Dutch mottled calf, gilt panelled with globe corner ornaments, large arabesque central ornament of Atlas carrying the world, spines gilt in compartments with globe tool, black morocco lettering-piece, several charts in volume one backed with clear adhesive tape, to prevent the oxidisation of the green pigment, very occasional offsetting and marginal spotting

James Gibbs (1682–1754), engraved bookplate

Koeman IV, M.Mor.7; Pastoureau, Neptune Français Ba, contrefaçon 1693

the first issue of the counterfeit amsterdam edition, appearing at the end of June 1693, with French, Dutch and English text. It was published by Pieter Mortier, a Frenchman who settled in Amsterdam, where he established himself as one of the leading map-publishers of his day. The charts were exactly re-engraved after the originals by H. van Loon and C. Berey. 

During the first ten years of its life the work was supplemented by Mortier’s Atlas maritime, with charts engraved by Romein de Hooghe in 1693, and then by the Suite du Neptune françois of 1700 (see next lot). Apart from the present volume which was reissued in 1700 and 1703, none of the atlases were republished and none of these editions after the first had the Paris imprint.