Essex Maps

23x19 cm

ESSEX
Drawn and Engraved under the direction of J. Britton & E.W.Brayley.
Engraved by J. Roper, from a Drawing by G. Cole.| to accompany the Beauties of England and Wales.
London. Published for the Proprietors, by Vernor & Hood Poultry, Dec.r 1.st 1804. 
Engraved by John Roper (1771-1810), a London engraver and copperplate printer trading from New Street Square from 1797 until his death in 1810. His widow, Mary Roper, continued the business at the same address until at least 1846. This series of maps, most drawn by G[eorge?] Cole, were intended to accompany The Beauties of England and Wales. The maps were not actually published with this work but first issued in parts as a separate series between 1804 and 1810 and first appearing in atlas form in The British Atlas published by Vernor Hood & Sharpe (& nine other publishers) in 1810. The maps were re-issued in several publications including Dugdale's Curiosities of Great Britain until 1843. Their final appearance was by lithographic transfer in Collins' railway and pedestrian atlas… published by Darton and Co. in 1858.
Red underlining to a number of place names in a later hand but still a very good example from the first edition in original hand colour. Large watermark: J WHATMAN 1808 W BALSTON.