Essex Maps

21x17 cm

ESSEX
This series of maps were first issued in The English Traveller, published in parts by the Fleet Street printer Thomas Read, from November 1743, with Essex appearing on 3 March 1743. Advertisements for the parts issues did not continue after September 1744 but, if the weekly publication was maintained, the work was completed in November 1745. The speed of production would have required the employment of several engravers but none have been identified.
The complete three volume topographical work containing all the maps, The English Traveller…, was first issued in 1746. 
On the death or retirement of Thomas Read, the maps passed into the hands of the Huguenot John Rocque (1704?-1762) who published them with a further 19 maps, probably also prepared by Read, and with revisions to most maps, in The Small British Atlas… from 1753 to 1764. Their final appearance was in  England Displayed…London: S.Bladon et.al...1769 and 1770.

This hand coloured example, with the plate number erased, was published in England Displayed...London, 1769.