About this Item
1806. Second edition. [iv], 42 pages of hand-coloured copper-plate maps with description of the counties of England; [i], 12 pages of maps of Wales with descriptive accounts; a double-page coloured index map; and a 1 page index. This is a scarce atlas of England and Wales, prepared for use of the young. John Luffman (1776-1820) was a London based engraver, publisher and professional goldsmith. He was also an author in his own right and an accomplished geographer. His early works were engravings of the road maps in Taylor and Skinner?s Survey and Maps of the Roads of North Britain, 1776, followed by some city plans and a number of county maps. In 1803, he engraved, printed and published the work for which he is best known, "A New Pocket Atlas". It is noted for the unusual circular maps with detailed descriptive text below, which proved to be very popular. Each map is engraved with a text of topographical information below the map. He writes in his preface that geography is "too often neglected in the education of our your. A knowledge of the geography of our own country, in particular, must be obvious to every one. With a view to this part of juvenile education, I have been induced to offer to ther public the following sheets, elucidated with maps, that will at once make ther pupil acquainted, not only wioth the form and situation, but with every particular relative to each county. The book is bound in the original half-leather over marbled paper covered boards and a paper label on the front board. The case of the book is in very good condition with some expected signs of its age of over 200 years. There is some shelf wear and soiling on the boards and there is a little damage and loss to the leather around the corner tips. About 1/4" of the leather is missing from the top of the spine and about 1/2" is missing from the bottom of the spine. The contents are tight and the maps are bright and clean. There is some foxing on the endpapers, the title page and index map at the end of the book. A few of the pages of maps have light finger smudges on the fore edge. The endpapers also have some soiling and there is a water stain on the top 1/2" and part of the fore edge of the front free endpaper. An old name and address has been written on the front free endpaper which also has a small book label from a previous owner, probably from the 1930s. Overall, this is a sound and clean copy of a scarce volume. Seller Inventory # VIAtlas001
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