Hertfordshire Maps

30x26 cm

Hertfordshire.
Robt. K. Dawson | Lieut. R.E.
R. Martin, 124 High Holborn, & 51, Carey St.
Robert Kearsley Dawson (1798-1861) was the son of Robert Dawson (1771-1860), a draughtsman with the Corps of Royal Military Surveyors and Draughtsmen, retiring in 1836. Robert Kearsley Dawson worked as a draughtsman for the Ordnance Survey on Scottish and Irish surveys under Major Colby. Parliament introduced The Reform Bill in 1831, reviewing the boundaries of the boroughs affected by the changes in the electoral process and Dawson prepared a series of county maps and town plans as the official record of those changes.
Printed from a lithographic stone on which the design had been laid down from the original drawing, they were the first series of county maps to employ the lithographic process developed by Johann Alois Senefelder in Germany in 1796. First issued in 1831 there followed several issues in 1832 incorporating minor changes.
This is the first issue of 1831, probably a preliminary map produced as for the use of the commissioners appointed to consider the division of the counties and the borough boundaries.
Folds as issued but a clean example in original hand colour of the first issue. No border, large margins.
Hodson Printed Maps of Hertfordshire ref. 95(i)