Add MS 74751 A-B

INVASION PLANS: Anon. (Ministère de la Marine) 'Cartes rélatives à un projet de descente sur les côtes d'angleterre, précédées d'un tableau des ports, Bayes et Rades de France, depuis Dunkerque, Jusqu'à Antibes' [ca.1762]. The volume contains (ff. 2-10) tables listing the principal French ports, the number of ships and sailors that could be assembled in each port, bay and road, the soundings at high and low water, their geographical situations and distances from each other by land and sea, their administrative affiliations, their garrisons and other, miscellaneous information. The volume was assembled after 1759, and the invasion attempt that ended in defeat at the Battle of Quiberon Bay, the 1759 invasion project being mentioned on f.6. The implication on f.4 that the harbour works at Le Havre had not been repaired since their seizure by the British in 1758, however, suggests that this volume does not date from long after 1759, and presumably before the ending of hostilities with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Purchased at Sotheby's, 2 December 1999, lot 353. The volume now contains two (out of an original three) manuscript maps. The missing map, originally second in the series, showed `la partie méridionale de l'angleterre avec la marche sur londres des troupes débarquées'.

Paper. ff. ii +12. 505 x 630 mm. Original yellow leather binding with blank label on front cover and remains of four blue ribbons.