North America

23x17 cm

NORTH AMERICA
London, Pub.^d by Edwards 12, Ave Maria Lane
J. Archer sc.
In side margin; No. CXL.] GUIDE TO KNOWLEDGE. ^PRICEONE PENNY

William Pinnock (1782-1843), born in Alton, Hampshire became a schoolmaster. In 1817 he moved to London and, in partnership with Samuel Maunder, began the publication of cheap educational works. The Guide to Knowledge was a publication issued in weekly parts between 1833 and 1834 and containing maps printed from the woodblock with the incised lines appearing white on a black ground. The technique proved unpopular for topographical maps and was not used again, the county maps appearing again in a more traditional format by lithographic transfer Johnson's Atlas of England in 1847 & 1863.
The engraver was Joshua Archer (c.1792-1863), engraver, cartographer and copperplate printer, born in Barnstaple in Devon. His first recorded work as an engraver was a map of Scotland for Robert Wilkinson in 1814. He was declared bankrupt in 1835, imprisoned for debt in 1845 but recorded as a map and chart engraver aged 69, on the 1861 census, living in Islington with his wife, Jane, a son, John, also a map and chart engraver, Albert Archer, (map and chart draughtsman) and his wife Elizabeth and three children.  

Good example, light spotting to margins.