Two Sheet Map Principality Wales (2 results)

No binding. Large folding map (870 x 550 mm.), printed in two sheets, joined, dissected, backed on contemporary linen. In early outline colour. With very minor foxing. This fine large map of Wales was first published in 1804 in Charles Smith's 'New English Atlas'. A second edition was published in 1808 and it is from this edition that this map is taken. Smith (fl.1799-1852) and John Cary were great rivals in the first half of the nineteenth century. Cary would produce a similar atlas in 1809. Smith's maps bear the distinction of being the first to show longitudes from the meridian of Greenwich Observatory. Provenance: public auction. Chubb (1927) 311.

A well engraved and detailed large-scale map of Wales, printed on two sheets . The map is thoroughly detailed and includes good information regarding the turnpike and mail roads as well as distances between market towns and also the canal network. Details shown include the canals, distances between market towns, "gentlemen's houses", and the sandbanks and hidden rocks in Cardigan Bay. Original outline and wash colour defines the county's hundreds which are also listed in a numbered key. The map first appeared in Smith's "New English Atlas Being A Complete Set of County Maps". Smith was a stationer and mapseller working in the Strand, London, from about 1800 onwards and continued the standard set by John Cary for precise, detailed maps, finely produced and without the embellishments of the previous century. The maps from his county atlas set a new standard for their presentation and execution with the skilful fashion in which the wealth of cartographic detail has been compressed into the folio sheet. These maps justly met with great commercial success, being re-issued in atlas form and as folding maps into the 1860's. With attractive colour the map has light, but negligible, centrefold discolouration.