A New Map of Nottingham-Shire with the Post & Cross Roads, and other remarks according to ye latest and best Observations.

OVERTON, Henry

Published by London, 1714

About this Item

350 x 495 mm., a good example with wide margins. It is conceivable that this one final plate was already in production by Sutton Nicholls when Henry Overton acquired the John Speed plates from Christopher Browne around 1713. Dated 1714 it stands out from the balance which can be dated to 1711 and 1712. The exact reason for the delay remains speculation. A superb plan of the town of Nottingham is inserted upper left with a description of the county including a note of the roads below. Although the map is derived from the Robert Morden of 1695 the plan of Nottingham is from an unknown source. Hodson states that it is not drawn from that of Thoroton, 1677. He goes on to speculate that if it was indeed a new survey it may provide the reason for the delay.John Overton (1640-1713) was the son of a bookseller Henry Overton and married the daughter of the publisher William Garrett. He was a printseller who in 1665 acquired the stock of Peter Stent who died of the plague that year and who had arguably the largest collection of prints on the market at the time. Amongst this stock he found twelve copper plates of the English counties by William Smith. These formed the nucleus of a set of maps of the English Counties. Overton commissioned the engraving of some new plates for missing counties; amongst them is one of Berkshire by the great engraver Wenceslaus Hollar. Those counties which Overton could not provide from his own stock were supplied by the acquired maps of Speed, Blaeu or Jansson. These county atlases were an English version of a rich seam of similar Dutch composite atlases published from the mid-seventeenth century. They are exceedingly rare surviving in just four known examples. Later atlases sold by his son Henry are similarly rare, only seven survive. Until about 1711 both John and Henry Overton had been content to acquire the plates of Jansson and others to fill in the missing counties in their supply. Most of those of Blaeu had been lost in the disastrous fire of 1672. Quite probably around 1711 the plates of Jansson were acquired by David Mortier who possibly stopped supplying the Overton firm. This forced Henry to engrave maps of those missing counties. He employed the services of Sutton Nicholls who promptly produced five maps between 1711 and 1712. Production was halted when in about 1713 fortune gave Henry the opportunity to acquire the old John Speed plates from Christopher Browne.

Seller Inventory # 4996

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A New Map of Nottingham-Shire with the Post & Cross Roads, and other remarks according to ye latest and best Observations.
• Publisher: London
• Publication Date: 1714
• Binding: No binding
• Seller catalogs:
  • English counties
  • England