Tableaux d'arithmetique lineaire (French edition of the Commercial and Political Atlas) - Tableau des dépenses de la Marine d'Angleterre, depuis l'année 1720 jusqu'en 1786, W. Playfair invenit [14319.059]
The pattern
This still is filed under Data as proof.
Define
A chart, map, or count that is the argument, not an illustration next to the argument.
Mechanism
Sighted evidence. The reader is asked to believe their eyes: a bar, a share, a spread on a map.
Verdict
The claim is comparative or quantitative and the figure can be read without a caption doing the sell.
Why it works
The plate uses exactly the same grammar as the army, artillery and total-services sheets on purpose: same frame, same cartouche position, same caption slot, same in-plot labelling. Repeating the template across a run is what makes the series comparable at all, because the reader learns the form once and afterwards only has to read the shape. The fine minor rules sitting under the coarse major grid let a value be taken off the plate without the grid competing visually with the curve. Department is coded only by wash colour, green here against the pink of the army sheet, which is a weak distinction by modern standards but enough when the plates are bound in a fixed order and each carries its own title.
Steal this when
Use it when you are producing a run of charts on the same subject for different divisions and you want them to read as one system rather than as separate exhibits. Fix the frame, the title position, the caption slot and the labelling convention first, then change only the data.